


An Act to Follow

by Dragoncurl



Series: The Angel is Coming [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, also frisk doesnt start off too well, but theyll get better i promise, theres some mention of blood on the first chapter fyi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-10-22 02:52:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10688301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragoncurl/pseuds/Dragoncurl
Summary: A sequel to my other fic,Burning in Hell. I don'tthinkit's necessary to read the first one, I'm giving a little summary of it at the start of the first chapter, but it'll probably help.Character and relationship tags will be added as time goes on, since right now I'm not entirely sure how far I'm gonna go with this fic. I feel it's going to be a lot shorter than the last one, since I wanna stick only to what's really relevant in each chapter. We'll see.





	1. The Sapphire Enhancer

The skeleton's eyes are on Alphys' claws while she assembles the Sapphire Enhancer around his hand, his forearm, his exposed ribs; he's bare from the waist up. There's shortcut open to the Void nearby, to let Gaster help her through sign language. She's talking, but he's not listening.

Sans' sockets are on the present, but his mind is anywhere but.

It was quite a few months ago that he woke up like he'd been electrified, with other months' worth of memories suddenly clogging his already overfilled skull from his other self, the one that went through the Reset with Frisk. Months of wandering a dust-filled Underground, of monsters mourning relatives, of research into the kid's soul and the Void Extract taken from it, of its effects, of talking to the old forgotten Doctor Gaster through an Echo Flower tainted with the stuff. He remembers splitting the souls apart with the Extractor, Frisk's and what little was left of Chara's, and seeing Flowey, a warped puppet to Chara's will, tear across the entire Underground, trying to complete the job Chara began before he killed them in the Golden Hall.

Sans remembers going to the basement of Asgore's castle, to the Stasis Generator and the seven souls, and freeing them, and taking Frisk's. He remembers the pain of it, of his limbs splitting apart, of flesh forming underneath the bone-turned-carapace, and that heat, the vague not-warmth he'd always feel, the tug on his soul that told him when Frisk was in the Underground, come to a head as a scorching, blazing fire in his very core as their souls became one and the same. He remembers the kid's voice in his skull, and how he suddenly felt too big for his body, despite the bony fleshless wings and the hot flesh and blood filling his bones, bloating them like balloons, and the sheer  _ power _ when he brought out his original Blaster and the thing was just as warped as him, bigger, sharper, covered in spikes and horns and flesh inside the expanded white shell.

Sans remembers passing through the faint, not-really-there chill of the Barrier with the other souls, and leaving them there for the abomination that Flowey and Chara had become to see, forever out of reach, as he himself just left them to their prison, powerless inside their little bubble of dust and rubble. He remembers walking outside under the dying sunset, remembers feeling the bite of the snowy cold on his bone-carapace, on the slivers of flesh and skin peeking through the joints. He remembers talking to Frisk, and the heat of Determination roaring through his new veins like wildfire, giving him a confidence he'd lost a long time ago. He remembers agreeing to the Reset, and his skull hitting the forest floor before his headless body did, and reality coming undone like when you take a thread and pull and unravel the whole fabric above it.

Sans remembers the Void. Unending black, thick as molasses and yet emptier than space itself, because at least space gives you something to look at, and cold by the sheer absence of temperature as a concept, along with time and space and anything that makes reality real and the Void its opposite; the antimatter to Reality's matter. He remembers talking to Gaster, or what little was left of the old skeleton, with his warped skull and drooping socket and hands melded together around nails that weren't there, holes on his palms that he used to show them, both Sans and Frisk, all the golden sparks, the Save Points, hanging in the not-air all around them, fake stars for a fake vacuum, because how can there be vacuum when matter itself doesn't exist?

And, finally, Sans remembers his promises to save both Frisk and Gaster. Or rather, the promises of his other, DT-fuelled self, that were foisted upon him when all these memories rushed into his skull at once and gave him a head-splitting migraine and jolted him awake all those months ago.

That very same morning Sans had jumped out of bed and through a shortcut, and found his way into the Ruins, and, yes, he's not afraid to admit it, kidnapped the human from right under Toriel's nose, almost literally. He hadn't been quick enough, they'd already managed to get dust on their clothes, but there was nothing he could do about that. Their LOVE wasn't high at least, that tug on his soul had only pulled him against a single nail instead of a whole bed of them. Like making a bed of pencil butts, those with the little eraser on the other end, but then putting one of them with the writing end pointing up and sharpened.

Since then, the human's been kept in this sort of cave Sans found high above the Underground, carved up into the ceiling of the titanic space monsterkind calls home by erosion or water or whatever. He'd found it, and tied the kid to some stalagmites, tied them so tightly they could barely even move their fingers and jaw. He hadn't, at first, but Chara kept finding new ways to hurt Frisk's body to try to kill them and trigger a Reset, and Sans had been forced to restrain them down to their teeth so they wouldn't bite their tongue off and drown in their own blood.

With the human safe and sound and, most importantly, away from Flowey's network of eavesdropping vines, Sans had turned to the matter of how to split Frisk and Chara again. He needed their soul for that, but he couldn't exactly kill them for it like last time, and his blue magic is nowhere near strong enough to let him tear it out of their body like the doc used to do with his subjects.  **_But_ ** , Gaster had come up with a possible workaround back in the day. All Sans had to do was figure out how to build the damn thing without drawing Flowey's attention.

The skeleton's smile widens while Alphys works.

Heh, when he opened that first shortcut to the Void, the old doc had freaked out so much. It was a shot in the dark, quite literally. Sans could only open shortcuts to places he personally had been, and he hadn't  _ really _ been in the Void, his other self had. But, as it turned out, the air split apart into the absolute black after only some slight resistance. He'd found a loophole. Gaster had fretted and worried and absolutely refused to let Sans put even the tiniest bit of bone over the threshold of the crack, and since nothing that wasn't him could get through the skeleton's shortcuts without touching him, Gaster was trapped on the other side of the invisible wall. But they could talk at least. Or rather, Sans could talk. Gaster had to use sign language to respond. There's nothing in the Void to carry sound, regardless of how capable of speech the warped skeleton may or may not be.

Even disregarding the fact that the blueprints were unfinished, Gaster had become a vital part of the little conspiracy that had formed between him, Sans and Alphys. He could keep an eye on Flowey from the Void, to make sure the flower didn't catch on to what was going on. He ensured the secrecy of their work, and without his help, the completion of the Sapphire Enhancer would've taken infinitely longer.

The Enhancer project had never left the drawing board, back when the Doctor was still... well, not alive so much as a part of reality. His status as a Boss Monster made his blue magic so powerful he could easily tear the soul out of his target's body, but in the offchance that the ability might be needed by a monster of less power, he'd come up with the concept of the Magic Enhancers: devices meant to tap into the energy of the wearer's soul and multiply it tenfold. Gemstones were to be inlaid into the structure, with the colors corresponding to the Soul Trait to be enhanced. Ruby for Determination, Amber for Bravery, Citrine for Justice, Peridot for Kindness (emeralds were too dark), Turquoise for Patience, Sapphire for Integrity, Amethyst for Integrity. A Diamond Enhancer had been intended as a non-specific alternative meant to heighten all of a monster's abilities at once, and with the discovery of the Void Trait by Sans, the Onyx Enhancer was also added to the project.

But they only need the Sapphire one, and Gaster was adamant about it being destroyed once it has fulfilled its purpose. They haven't even bothered making it look nice. The thing Alphys is putting together around Sans' arm and chest is nothing but thin, metal scaffoldings molded to the bone, supporting a mess of wires and tubes and little dark blue gemstones at carefully-calculated positions along his limb and across his ribs. The chest part was done first, and she's just finishing with the bits around the fingerbones when the skeleton's thoughts wander back to the present.

His gaze glides past Alphys' claws and goes to the shortcut he's been keeping open, but Gaster doesn't notice. He's looking at the lizard's work, meeting her periodic glances with nods and encouraging smiles to reassure her that yes, she's doing fine, everything looks correct, keep going.

Eventually, Alphys breathes a sigh of relief and sets down her tools. "A-all done," she says, running a hand over her brow to wipe (uselessly) at the sweat beading from under her scales.

Sans sits up straight and moves his arm, twisting it this way and that, bending the wrist, the fingers, making sure his movement isn't restricted. Once he's satisfied, he gets to his feet and splays out his hand toward Alphys. Her chest lights up with blue, as expected, but the Enhancer comes to life as well, thankfully. Sans can feel a sort of... like a  _ grip _ in his soul, a cold iron hand that wraps around the bright white heart with the black spot that forms, all on its own, inside his ribcage. The little sapphires all shine like Christmas lights wrapped around his arm, and the tubes running from his ribs, up over his shoulder, past the elbow and all the way to his palm, fill with light as well, a smoky, hazy, shifting blue radiance like a neon sign that's at the end of its life.

His hand drops, and the light fades. Alphys lets out a breath she was apparently holding. "feel any different"? Sans asks.

"Um... m-maybe? I think the hold might b-be stronger."

Sans just hums.

He's looking at the mess of metal strapped to his arm. Then his gaze goes to the shortcut, and the warped skeleton beyond it, but Gaster shakes his head and smiles before Sans can do anything. NO POINT, he signs.

The skeleton just shrugs and looks at his hand again, then lets his arm drop. "guess now we just need to test it."

The looks he gets aren't any different from what he expected. Worry, and reluctance, in the glance Alphys and Gaster share. "we need to make sure this thing's working properly, don't we?" he goes on. "we only got one chance with this."

Alphys is fidgeting with her buttons. She stutters and mumbles something out, but it never forms into words. Gaster is wringing his hands, blending the half-molten bone together. Neither of them are looking at Sans.

The skeleton rolls his eyes. With a wave if his hand, the shortcut closes, but just before it does he can just barely catch a glimpse of the doc's worried, almost pleading look. Alphys looks alarmed as well, and when he turns around and another crack begins to split the air, she realizes what he's going to do one moment too late. "Sans, don't-!"

She's cut off by the shortcut closing behind him.

He's in Waterfall now, up on one of the secluded spaces that're out of reach from most easy footpaths, surrounded by rock like crooked fangs on the mouth of a great beast, the ceiling hanging low over him, dripping cold water onto his skull. He sighs and wipes at his head by reflex. "i know you've turned a new leaf and all, but it's necessary," he says to the velvety darkness around him; Gaster's watching, he'll get the message. With one last roll of his wrist to try and get the wires to behave, Sans sets off to find a test subject.

Even in the darkest, most remote corners of the Underground, even in places that not a single monster has ever set foot in, there's always this subtle, underlying glow, a faint light coming from nowhere and everywhere at once, leaving little to no shadows upon the most uneven surface. It's this ethereal glow that guides Sans around the blunt ends of stalagmites and stalactites, until he reaches the edge of the spiny plateau he's on and looks out over the glowing marsh below. He gets down on one knee and scans the bridges of land and wood crisscrossing over the shimmering water, marking each monster he sees in a mental map, looking for an isolated area, a lone wanderer, anything like that. After a minute or so, he finds it: a single moldsmal, quivering at its own faint reflection at the water's edge, on a little finger of land apart from the rest.

The skeleton's hand lifts. The gems light across his ribs, down his arm, one by one, cobalt smoke filling the tubes and entwining with his fingerbones. His eye flashes, cyan and yellow. The distance makes it harder, Sans has to aim carefully, he even puts the distant moldsmal between his middle and ring finger in his sight. But then he feels it, like an invisible tendril shooting ahead, reaching for his target. Blue springs up around the gelatinous monster, and before the thing can react Sans clenches his fist and jerks it back.

A tiny white blur is the only sign it worked, until the little soul stops dead mere inches from his knuckles, but he barely has the time to look at it before it dissolves into nothing. And where the moldsmal was now stands a little pile of dust that is easily scattered into the water by a passing wind.

Sans nods and gets to his feet again. He can almost feel Gaster's disapproving gaze boring into the back of his skull, but he ignores it. Instead, he waves a new shortcut open and steps through, this time to the cave holding the human.

He'll never get used to seeing them like this.

They have their back to a thick, bulky stalagmite, their arms tied to other two on either side, and each ankle anchored to yet more formations separately. Ropes and binds and rags are tied across their entire body, their head, between their jaws, over their fingers, everywhere, leaving little room for anything but shallow breaths. There are still signs of their last attempt at a Reset, spots of blood around their nails and on the rags tied over their palms where they tried desperately to scour their hands open. Sans hates having to keep them like this, but there was no other way to keep them from hurting themself. Even with the thick sweater over their form, it's clear how much weight they're lost, how bony their face is. It's hard to make them eat without purposefully choking on everything.

They're asleep now, thankfully. He doesn't have to see that hateful crimson stare shine out at him like a shower of daggers. He just raises his hand again, and just like before the gems light up, blue envelops the human's chest, and their eyes fly open just as the soul comes whizzing out of their body and stops, quivering, over the skeleton's palm. Like a puppet with severed strings, the human seems to almost die, limbs going slack in their binds, but their eyes stay open, just barely, gaze unfocused and empty, and their breaths turn deep and slow, almost imperceptible.

Just like the subjects Sans used to help the old doc with. But he shakes his head and pushes the thought aside, except that one particular conversation sticks out in his mind.

He remembers Gaster telling him about how the soul always wants to return to its owner, but he'd never fully understood until now. The shining red heart over his hand is vibrating. Its tug on Sans' own soul is stronger than ever, not just because it's fully exposed and so very close, but because he can  _ feel _ it trying to free itself from the hold of his blue magic, trying in vain to return to the warmth of flesh and blood meant to house it. It almost makes Sans want to close his fingers around it to make sure it won't fly off, but that'd just end in disaster.

Sans uses his other hand to open a shortcut to Gaster. He ignores the old skeleton's look of disappointment. "is the weed still busy?" The former doctor does a head motion that Sans is pretty sure is a sigh, then looks off to the side where he can't see for a moment and nods. "where's alph?" Gaster looks away again, moves one of his hands like he's lazily swatting at a fly, then signs MACHINE at him, which is how he refers to the Extractor without resorting to spelling out the actual name. Sans closes the shortcut without another word.

Another wave of his hand, and the crack reopens, letting him step onto the edge of the pit below the skull-like contraption. "heya," he says, but Alphys rarely jumps at his sudden appearances these days. She just looks over her shoulder and gives him an uncomfortable little 'h-hi' before turning to the hidden panel in the wall. Sans waits patiently, keeping a close eye on the soul. It's resisting less now, but he can still feel it trying to free itself. He won't have to hold it much longer though.

The Extractor hisses on its support as it moves closer, one of its sockets already adapted with the Soul Displacer. There's an empty Soul Pod waiting on the floor too, so once the skull façade of the machine splits open it's easy to put the soul on the pod and slot the whole thing into the socket until a click shows that it's locked in place. Alphys goes back to the control terminal in the wall and taps a few keys to start the extraction. Just like Sans remembers his other self doing, the red heart dissolves into mist tainted by black, and the oily fog is sucked up into the machine and directed down, into the awaiting receptacle at the 'mouth' of the skull.

Except that, unlike last time, the thing receiving Chara's soul is an entirely new pod, built specifically for it and with a very particular shape. Once the extraction is complete, Alphys hurries over to the machine, unlocks the lower receptacle, and brings it over to Sans, but then she stops when her eyes land on the mess of wires across his chest that's part of the Sapphire Enhancer. "Um... M-maybe we should return F-Frisk's soul first?"

The new Soul Pod Alphys is holding, it's shaped in such a way to fit inside Sans' ribcage and stay there, locked in place, hidden and safe from Flowey's spying. And if the Enhancer makes his own soul form in his chest, right where Chara's will be, that's going to be a problem, isn't it? He nods. Alphys is busy holding Chara's pod, so Sans hefts the red one out of the Extractor by himself with a grunt and pulls the soul out. They both move through the shortcut this time, into the human's temporary prison, and Sans lets Frisk's heart loose.

There's a blur of red, and suddenly the kid gasps for air, whole body straining against their bonds until they buckle again, breathing hard for a minute or so. While they recover, Alphys hurries to tear the Enhancer parts off Sans' ribs, fit Chara's pod into his chest, strap its battery to his lumbar, then finish tearing off the rest of the Enhancer mechanism.

It's while the metal parts, broken wires, loose gemstones are cascading onto the hard stone floor that they hear a faint, hoarse noise from Frisk. Both their eyes snap to the human, and finally Sans sees his friend again. There's no malicious red light in their eyes, no tension in their frame, no snarl on their lips around the gag. It's just Frisk, looking up at them, weak, pale, face all sharp bony angles, hair hanging in matted tangles around it. It breaks Sans' metaphorical heart.

The last bit of metal falls off his bones and then he's down on his knees in front of Frisk, pulling the gag out of their mouth, brushing their hair, checking their pulse. It's weak, but stable. "hey kid. good to see ya again. don't worry, i'm sure tori'll have ya back in shape in no time. i'm real sorry about all this."

Frisk says it's okay. They understand. They were watching the whole time. Then, while both Sans and Alphys work on their restraints one by one ("H-hey there," the lizard says when she kneels next to the skeleton), their eyes go to the pod inside Sans' chest, and the ball of swirling black smoke they can just barely make out between his ribs. He glances down too.

"yep. that's your friend," Sans nods without pausing the work of his hands. "gotta keep'em secret until we figure out what to do with them."

Frisk's arms are lowered to their sides, and they wince when the shoulder joints seem to grind full of sand after a long time without movement. Alphys tries to rub some sensation back into them, but that just makes Frisk whimper weakly, so she stops and goes to their hands instead, wiping the crusted blood away, using a bit of healing magic to close the cuts as best as possible. She's not the best at healing, but she can manage little things like this.

Slowly, carefully, Frisk is released from the bonds meant for someone else. They're so weak they can't even stand, Sans has to heft them into his arms, one hand under their knees, the other across their back. They ask about Toriel.

Sans lets out a breath while Alphys sweeps the broken parts of the Enhancer into a shortcut that leads to the magma of Hotland. "yeah, that's not a conversation i'm looking forward to, kid. but we gotta stick to the plan, and she's the best option for getting you back together. me and alph were talking and we got a plan."

Frisk nods to show they're listening.

The shortcut closes, and another opens, bringing them to the room full of beds in the old labs. Sans lays the human on one of them, just for now, and sits on the edge with Alphys on the other side. "so, ya still need to go through the underground the usual way, right? we don't wanna risk changing things more than they already have. so we're gonna bring you back to tori and explain everything to her, and once you're good and healthy again you head out and do things as close to the original plan as possible. while you're recovering me and alph are gonna work on whatever's gonna bring the doc back. i dunno if we'll be done by the time you're good again, we'll give you a new phone to keep in touch. sound good?"

Frisk nods again, but then they want to talk to Gaster.

Sans hesitates, but he opens the shortcut over the bed, and there's the half-molten skeleton, waving at Frisk with a smile. They return the latter, but not the former. And they say they want to do something for Asriel too, not just him.

Only Alphys isn't shocked. "A-Asriel?"

Flowey, Frisk clarifies. Before Alphys can ask more, Sans reaches over and puts a hand on her shoulder. "long story, alph." For a moment it seems like she's going to protest, but she frowns and stays quiet.

Gaster is clearly still taken aback. ARE YOU SURE he signs emphatically, but Frisk just nods. MAYBE NOT POSSIBLE say the hands in the Void, and Frisk understands. NOT KNOW HOW the forgotten skeleton gestures. The human reassures him, says he'll figure it out, they know he can. The Doctor doesn't seem so sure. He looks away, at something they can't see. He wrings his hands again, like wax hot enough to bubble but not enough for the bubbles to break the surface. He looks back at Frisk, at their tired but reassuring smile, looks down at nothing, at his own melded hands, and at Frisk again. WILL TRY he signs. The kid thanks him. He waves them goodbye. The shortcut closes.

Sans can't help but laugh. "yer too determined for your own good, kid."

Frisk just smiles in return.

Then Sans is on his feet again and clacks his palms together. "that's settled then. we'll take care of ya for a bit so you don't look like a corpse when we bring ya to tori, alright? alph, can you get'em started on a bath? im just gonna grab my jacket before i join you."

Alphys shuffles to her feet as well. "Yeah, o-okay. Come on, Frisk."


	2. The SPaDE Machine

"So, there was an-nother room here?"

"yep."

Alphys is staring at the uneven stone with incredulity clear in her eyes.

She and Sans are in Waterfall. She can see the crystallized cheese not too far behind him, and they passed by the archway to the ice cream guy's occasional stop on the way here. They were talking about Gaster, and how in the hell they were going to bring him back, and she asked just how exactly he'd ended up in the Void, and Sans asked if she wanted the long or the short version, and she said long, and now here they are, next to a seemingly featureless bit of wall in one of the many tunnels of Waterfall.

"that little dead end the ice cream guy uses wasn't the only one," the skeleton is saying. "there was another one, right here." He rests his hand on the cool stone. "and y'know how the glowing water from the marshes flows up through the walls here and makes the rain all over the underground? this room here had a whole bunch of that water flowing around it, made glowing mushrooms and stuff grow all over the walls. it was real pretty, actually."

Sans shakes his head with a little chuckle. "but anyway. the doc found a save point in there, and he figured that with all that magic flowing through the place, the fabric of reality would be a little looser in there, right? a little easier to tear. and that was exactly what he wanted to do, so he closed up the place and started setting up all kinds of stuff in there, to get readings and all. eventually he figured out a way to sorta lock the save point and use dt extract to pry it apart, and he had this whole team of other monsters, not just me, helping him out, all these terminals to work with in there, and on the day of the experiment we even brought paps along to see since it was so special. that was right after the doc's 1000th birthday. paps made him a cake and everything."

The skeleton leans his back against the wall, hands in his pockets. "it was a pretty big deal, but it went to hell almost immediately. i mean, we were literally trying to break reality, i dunno how we thought that wouldn't end badly. the doc had this idea that if we could open a stable bridge to the void then maybe we could do our own resets without relying on dt or something like that, i don't remember the exact theory. but it went wrong anyway. it didn't look like it would at first, we started up the machines and the dt flow and all, and we actually made the save point visible for everyone, not just the doc, and we were all excited. it was working! but then, as soon as we saw that little speck of black in the middle of the save point, everything started falling apart. the readouts were overloading, the dt flow was unstable, and suddenly that shiny gold crack was expanding all on its own, spreading outside the machine and swallowing it, and the doc, he was closest to it, he fell in, the ground just vanished from under his feet, and i tried to catch him with blue magic but that just dragged me in too."

Sans' smile crumbles away. "the last thing i remember was that darkness, the void all around me, and this... _thing_ in my chest. it wasn't really pain, more like something was eating away at my soul a little bit at a time." One of his hand touches his sternum, but then it goes back into his pocket. "paps had to tell me what happened after that. apparently all he saw was me getting thrown back out of the darkness right into his arms, and the rest of the team telling him to get away, that they'd contain the mess, and he just ran for it carrying me. i woke up in the inn in snowdin with him fretting, y'know how he gets when anything at all happens to me."

The skeleton smiles again. "that was when my reports started. it took quite a while for me to be able to even function properly with all those images flashing in my skull, and by the time i did, paps had all just about forgotten the doc. everyone i asked didn't know him either, and when i came here..." He glances behind him at the wall. "everything was gone. not even a trace of the room, just this wall, like it'd been this way forever."

Sans pushes off the wall and turns to face Alphys. "and you were working at the lab."

Alphys actually jumps a little. She'd gotten really absorbed in Sans' story, as it turns out, but this ties into some other stuff he's told her before. Early on, when he showed her all the blueprints he had that'd once belonged to Gaster, he told her about how he'd scoured the entire lab for them while superficially helping her with her projects which, at the time, were mostly concerned with refining Mettaton's basic rectangular form. The blueprint for the Extractor she'd already found, but every single other one he took and hid in his own secret lab.

The lizard fidgets with her buttons. Something he mentioned sticks out in her mind. "The l-loox you talked about, f-from your, um... other s-self. You... or, uh, h-him? You thought that th-they were having reports when they were inje-ected with the Void Extract." It's not quite a question, but her tone still implies Alphys wants confirmation, and to her relief the skeleton nods.

"yep. can't prove it, but the reaction was a less restrained version of what i did way back. the only reason i didn't start clawing at my sockets was because that would've made paps freak out even more than he already was."

Alphys isn't looking at Sans. He says it like he says everything, in the same lazy, relaxed tone, the same vague smile, it makes her uncomfortable. But she hasn't forgotten what originally started the conversation, and her eyes eventually drift to the wall that, according to the skeleton, shouldn't exist. "S-so, how did Gaster open the Save P-point?"

Sans' grin seems to waver slightly. Or maybe it's just the light. He waves a shortcut open and tugs her through it, to the basement behind his and Papyrus' home in Snowdin. There's a large something covered by a sheet in the corner that Alphys remembers asking about before, but while last time Sans only vaguely said the thing was 'broken', now he actually walks right up to it and yanks the sheet off.

What is revealed is a machine of some sort. The Sapphire Enhancer they built was quite a mess of wires, but it could never compare to this. The thing has two distinct sections. The lower one is roughly shaped like a slightly squished cube and very obvious unfinished, the metal frame and complicated inner workings fully visibly on one side, and the other showing an only half-hearted attempt at constructing a proper shell; Alphys can see large hoses and thick cables within, but it's just too messy to make sense of anything. The top half, however, seems much simpler, an actual hollow cube, with metal edges and thin little tubes wound around the frame loosely. Looking at the holes drilled into the metal at regular intervals, she guesses the cube is meant to be closed, either by more metal or my some form of glass or acrylic, but this too was left incomplete.

A noise of paper off to the side draws her attention away, and Alphys finds Sans unrolling a large blueprint across the worktop of his... desk? Whatever it is. She doesn't need his gesture to step close and look at it, and just like every other blueprint he's showed her, the text is scrambled, replaced by symbols and completely unintelligible. But the diagram is still there, and it lets her have an idea of what the finished machine should be like: a squat pedestal of mechanisms, holding a transparent cube lined by flows of DT Extract along the edges, and within its walls a golden spark.

A Save Point.

She runs her claws over the diagram. Without the text, it's hard to understand what's going on, but a few things are obvious. The tubes she saw on Sans' half-done prototype direct the DT flow, and can manipulate it through valves on their intersections and with little independent pumps. She also finds something that looks like the miniature Tesla coil she built when she was little, something meant to easily generate large amounts of electricity and static in a short time. But that's about the extent of what she can gather from the images alone. It's like she's back to trying to decipher the blueprint of the Extractor, so long ago.

"this is the spade machine. that's spade in caps but with a little 'a'. the save point and determination enchaining machine." Sans clarifies. His finger bones ghost over a spade, like the symbol on human playing cards, on a corner of the blueprint that seems to have been added by hand as a joke. "i tried building a new one, but without the full instructions or even a save point to pry open it'd be useless. the original couldn't even work by itself anyway, it relied on all the terminals we set up around it, so i just gave up."

The SPaDE Machine. It sounds familiar, somehow, in Alphys' ears. She knows for a fact that she's never heard the name before, and yet...

Her claws drift over the drawn spade symbol as well. With a brief glance toward the skeleton for confirmation, she picks up the blueprint to take a closer look, and thankfully Sans turns up the lights before she has to ask him to. But she still can't read the text. "so, u-um, did you decipher the s-symbols here?"

Sans gives a half-nod. "just about, but we don't need to anymore, do we?"

He waves a shortcut open with a grin, and there's Gaster again, like always,  a half-molten skull and hands surrounded by absolute black. He waves with an eager smile.

"so, how about helping us translate this mess, doc?"

The monsters in the Void nods.

 

~~~*~***~*~~~

 

*riiiing*  
*riiiing*  
*riiiing*  
...  
hey kid.  
...  
how're things with tori? you talking to her?  
...  
yeah, i figured. we should be alright to drop by in an hour or two if you think she's up for it.  
...  
sure thing.  
...  
...  
...  
heh, in an hour then.  
...  
don't worry, i think she's mostly over that. but we still gotta talk about her kids, an-  
...  
no, yeah, i know, i didn't mean today. there's a skele- _ton_ of other stuff to get through first. just saying that it's gotta come out eventually.  
...  
yeah yeah, i'll be careful.  
...  
we've got a sketch of a plan, but y'know how it is with all these weeds all over the place. gotta be careful.  
...  
heh, ya wouldn't believe, kid. we couldn't do any of this without him, not even help ya the way we did. we'll get'im back, don't worry.  
...  
no, not yet. he said he's trying to come up with something, but we're focusing on him for now. once we've got something more solid to bring him back we'll start worrying about your friend.  
...  
both of'em. and actually, the doc asked me to ask you if you agree that the king's kid should have a say in what happens with their friend.  
...  
yeah, alright, i figured. i'll keep'em safe until then.  
...  
yeah, paps knows. not everything yet, but the doc keeps hounding me to stop being cagey, so i've been telling him things here and there. i'm taking it slow, but yeah, i'm telling him.  
...  
don't think so. he says stuff sounds familiar sometimes, but that's about it. but alphys thought a name i told her felt familiar too.  
...  
yep  
...  
...  
...  
heh, alright kid. go help tori. we'll be there in an hour.

 

~~~*~***~*~~~

 

Having to schedule their meet-ups around Flowey's probing and spying is always frustrating, but they're making progress. The blueprint for the SPaDE Machine is fully translated, both thanks to Sans' previous attempts and Gaster's help, and now, the three of them are gathered in the old lab complex, the place Gaster used to spend most of his days in, to discuss a plan for his rescue. They've agreed that using some kind of modified version of the SPaDE Machine is their best option, but how exactly to modify it is what they're having trouble with.

Sans has the original blueprint, a copy with readable text, and a third paper with some sketches of a bigger version with the two sections separated. The wall that was never meant to be there, according to both Gaster and Frisk, actually houses a door of some sort that only they can see, much like the Save Points themselves. The idea they have so far is to have the lower section of the original SPaDE Machine as its own thing, while the top half has been stretched out in order to fit the whole massive door and left open, without the transparent covers. They've also done some loose sketches of a third and fourth modules, to provide readouts and a control terminal for the whole thing. The original team had more than that, but Sans and Alphys can only handle so much.

Right now, however, there's only silence. All three monsters are trying to figure out what exactly they can change at the core, the principle of the machine, in order to make the Door visible and tangible.

And then Alphys speaks up.

"Couldn't we u-use some Void Extra-act?"

Sans' skull lifts off his hands.

"D-didn't your other self get some from C-Chara's soul? Or, u-um, it was... Frisk's, while it still ha-ad Chara inside, right? But we c-can still get it from Chara's s-soul by itself, can't we? A-and..."

She tugs the sketches over and adds a few extra lines, then leans back to look it over again. Her eyes stay on the paper while she continues, still scribbling over the skeleton's far steadier lines.

"This D-door thing is tied to the Void, like the S-save Points, s-so maybe what was missing when Ga-aster did it was some V-void here in the timeline to... um... a-anchor the passage?" Alphys looked back up. "Does that ma-ake sense?"

The other two seem stunned.

It's Gaster who reacts first, signing MAKES A LOT OF SENSE with a wide and... proud?... smile. The look actually makes Alphys blush and look away, going back to tugging on her buttons. She doesn't see Sans' own grin, but she can hear it in his voice when he goes "i'm with the doc."

"H-heh, um... th-thanks."

She doesn't object when Sans tugs the sketches back over to himself, but by now, she knows better than to wait for him to ask before scooting her chair next to him. He also shifts Gaster's shortcut closer, so they can all really start cracking down on redesigning the machine now that they have a clear goal in mind.

This is going to be a challenge, but of the good kind.


	3. Ice Cream, Pie, Blood and Dust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy howdy this one turned out long. But it's mostly because of the dialogue I think.  
> Enjoy~

Vinnie doesn't have many customers, but the few regulars he has he cherishes with all his soul. He even keeps a few of the nicer compliments on his nice creams separate just for them.

One of the bunny monster's regulars is a short little skeleton named Sans. The guy seems to be, if not friends, at the very least acquaintances with everyone in the Underground. Vinnie knows he works at the MTT Hotel as a comedian too, but he's never been to one of his performances. Most of his time is spent next to his nice cream cart, after all. Lately, though, the skeleton has been coming by far more often, and he even had a friend with him once! It was a yellowish lizard with a lab coat named Alphys, who Vinnie is pretty sure was the Royal Scientist? But she seemed so shy, so he didn't ask.

Today -or rather, tonight- is coming to a close. In about an hour the bunny is going to close his umbrella and start pushing his cart down to the river to take the boat back to Snowdin, and he's just trying to think back to his stash of nice cream ingredients, trying to remember if he needs to refill anything, when a quiet but familiar noise of slippered feet makes his ears perk up. Vinnie puts on his best smile and straightens his back, just as Sans comes into view at the mouth of the little room the bunny uses as his Waterfall stop. And he's accompanied by Alphys again! How curious!

The skeleton glances toward the bunny and, ignoring the stammering protests of the lizard, tugs his friend over to the nice cream cart.

"Hello there, Sans!" Vinnie says brightly and gets the usual 'heya' in response. "And hello to you too, little lady!" he adds to the other monster, who just stammers out a little 'h-hi'. "Wonderful night, isn't it? Will you be having anything?"

"yeah. a cream and a chocolate, vin," the skeleton says, sliding the required Gs across the top of the cart. "did you figure out how to make the ketchup flavor yet?"

Vinnie wants to laugh, partly at the face Alphys makes behind Sans' back, but he just opens the cart and pulls out the requested flavors. "I'm afraid not, Sans. The ketchup just gets overwhelmed by the sugar with the recipe I use! But I'll keep trying, don't you worry!" He hands over the Nice Creams. "You're my best customer, Sans! I've taken your request as a personal challenge!"

The skeleton chuckles while he unwraps his nice cream, takes a look at the compliment on the inside ('I believe in you! You're the best!'), and bites a chunk off the sweet. Alphys makes a face again behind him while she simply licks hers. "just be careful not to get a brain freeze working with all that ice, yeah?"

Vinnie laughs again. "Of course! I'm a professional nice cream maker!" He leans forward over his cart, resting both elbows on it. "But, if you don't mind me asking, what are you two up to around here? I feel like you've been visiting me a lot more lately!"

Sans glances at his friend before answering. "a little project of ours, vin, nothing to worry about. alph and i just need to do some field research to keep going. get some measurements." He pauses and seems to think for a moment. "hey, you ever notice anything weird about the walls out there? in the path to the right of here, before the cheese?"

Vinnie has to think back to all the times he walked by those particular walls, but... "No, I can't say I ever did. It just seems like a regular cave wall to me. Why?"

The skeleton shakes his head. "no reason. thanks for the cream, vin."

The pair leaves, with Alphys saying a quiet little 'th-thanks' on the way out. "Have a good night!" the bunny says before they turn the corner and are out of sight.

How strange!

But Sans was always a little bit odd, anyway.

 

~~~*~***~*~~~

 

"whaddya think?"

They're back underground, in Sans' old office at the Lab. It used to be unused and full of junk food wrappers, with one half of it completely empty where Gaster's stuff used to be. Since the formation of the 'conspiracy', however, as Sans insists on calling it, the two of them have cleaned it up and have been using it as a base for the planning of the new and modified SPaDE Machine. The bookcase has been moved to the corner to make room on the wall, where sketches of prototypes and pictures of the wall in question are pinned up. On the desk they have the latest and, hopefully, final blueprint for the new machine, and Sans has a shortcut open to let Gaster examine the blueprint.

The doctor was the original designer of the thing, so he gets the final say on whether the new project is ready to be assembled or not.

Gaster's single, solitary eye light flies across the paper, taking in diagrams of pieces, measurements, labels and so on. Sans can see his molten lips moving, probably reading everything aloud to himself in the airless not-vacuum of the Void, until eventually, the former Royal Scientist looks up and gives a simple smile and thumbs-up.

Sans' grin widens. "alright. we'll get to building it then." He rolls up the blueprint and stows it away in one of the drawers, then turns back to the shortcut.

Gaster is signing a question at him, asking HOW IS FRIEND, meaning Chara.

"they're doing fine," the skeleton replies, unzipping his hoodie and rolling up his shirt to reveal the soul pod still filling his ribcage, curved metal between and clamped around the curved bones, a glass viewport at the top where his neck starts. Through it, the tar-like soul is visible.

Alphys takes the chance to reach over, pull the battery off the skeleton's spine, recharge it with her electricity magic, then put it back.

"probably sulking up a storm, but they're safe. the king's kid'll have his say when the time comes." Sans zips up his hoodie again. "and speaking of that, do you have a plan for the weed yet?"

Suddenly, Gaster seems... ashamed, almost? His gaze goes elsewhere, he wrings his hands, he looks down, and only then he signs a simple MAYBE, but with small motions, like he doesn't really want to say it.

"W-what's wrong?" Alphys asks.

Gaster doesn't meet her gaze.

WE WILL NEED DUST, the molten hands sign.

 

~~~*~***~*~~~

 

"When are your friends arriving, Frisk?"

The pie is in the oven and will be done soon. Frisk asked her to make something special, Sans and Alphys are going to come by for a meal tonight, and apparently the skeleton suggested pasta for some reason? So there's also a sumptuous lasagna cooling next to the sink. Toriel wanted to bake her specialty for dessert, but Frisk thought it'd be better to save the snails for a  _ really _ special occasion, so tonight's pie is just plain butterscotch.

Frisk answers that they should be here soon! And also that the pie is smelling great already!

"Thank you, Frisk. I know you love butterscotch, don't you?"

The child nods eagerly.

Just then, Toriel hears the telltale noise of Sans' arrival coming from the front door. He never properly knocks, he just says 'knock knock' instead.

The former queen gets to her feet, and Frisk follows her to the door. "Who's there?"

"ketchup."

"Ketchup who?"

" _ ketchup _ to me and i'll tell ya."

Toriel bursts out laughing. The door opens, and there's the skeleton with his usual grin, Alphys the Royal Scientist, and a second skeleton! He's dressed in what seems to have once been a recycled tuxedo, no doubt found in the garbage dump, but with his height the pants obviously had to be lengthened, and the top half is a vest/crop-top that leaves a good portion of his lumbar exposed for lack of an actual fleshy midriff to show. Alphys, instead of the usual labcoat, is wearing a plain black dress with large white polka dots. "Hello Sans, Alphys."

The lizard just says her usual quiet 'h-hi'.

"heya." Sans ruffles Frisk's hair, then gestures to the other skeleton. "this is  my bro. paps, tori."

"Ah, yes. Sans has told me so much about you, Papyrus! It's a pleasure to meet you. Please, everyone, come in."

As soon as the door's shut, the taller skeleton hurries to shake Toriel's hand quite enthusiastically. "GREETINGS, YOUR HIGHNESS! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AND DESPITE MY LAZY BROTHER'S ADVICE, I TAKE PRIDE IN RESPECTING THE RANK OF SUCH A NOBLE WOMAN! THANK YOU FOR WELCOMING US FOR THIS INCREDIBLE FEAST!"

Toriel just laughs again. "Papyrus, please. I'm hardly a queen anymore. Just call me Toriel. This is a simple dinner among friends. And I see now why Sans suggested pasta for the meal! You're quite a fan of it, aren't you?" she says as they make their way into the living/dining room.

"OH YES! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS NOT ONLY DESTINED TO BECOME A ROYAL GUARD, YET HE IS ALSO MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, EXPERT IN ALL THINGS PASTA! MY FAVORITE IS SPAGHETTI, YOUR HIG- TORIEL! BUT I AM SURE YOUR SKILL SURPASSES EVEN MY OWN!"

The former queen smiles. The skeleton's boastful demeanor is quite endearing, although a part of her wishes he'd lower his voice while indoors. "Well, I'm no expert, but I do know a thing or two. I hope you'll enjoy the dish I made. It's a special lasagna, made just for you."

"I MOST CERTAINLY WILL! BUT, IT SEEMS WE HAVE A PROBLEM, YOUR H- TORIEL!" Papyrus indicates the table with a broad gesture. "THERE AREN'T ENOUGH SEATS FOR EVERYONE!"

He's right. There are only three chairs here, and they've counted up to five. Even if Papyrus hadn't unexpectedly shown up, they'd still be one chair short. "Ah, yes, how embarrassing." She looks around in thought, and her eyes land on the armchair. "Papyrus, could you bring my armchair to the head of the table, please?"

"RIGHT AWAY, YO- TORIEL!"

The skeleton rushes to the chair's side, and while he busies himself, Toriel heads to her room to fetch the one from her desk. This lets everyone sit down, the two skeleton brothers on one side, Alphys and Frisk on the other, and Toriel herself at the head as the hostess.

It's actually strange, having so many monsters at her table like this. She'd gotten so used to the loneliness of the Ruins. All the other monsters who live here are too intimidated to even talk to her much at all, let alone actually accept an invite to a meal. Frisk's presence over the last couple months helped immensely, but still. And with Papyrus' very loud presence, it feels like the table is even more crowded.

But the former queen doesn't let it show.

Once everyone is nice and comfortable, and she's fetched cushions and pillows to help the more height-challenged among them to reach the tabletop, Toriel brings the plates and forks to the table and serves a square for each of them before taking her own share; she leaves a bottle of ketchup next to Sans' plate, and he promptly squeezes nearly half of it onto his meal.

Papyrus berates him almost immediately. "SANS! DON'T RUIN THE QUEEN'S COOKING WITH YOUR DESPICABLE LOVE FOR THAT UNGODLY SAUCE!"

Sans just shrugs, but Toriel laughs. "It's quite alright, Papyrus."

The taller skeleton somehow manages to scowl without lips, but doesn't say anything else. They all start to eat, and yet barely a minute passes before Papyrus' loud voice is echoing down the hall again.

"TORIEL! THIS PASTA CONCOCTION IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! THE GREAT MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS DEMANDS TO KNOW THE RECIPE!" he shouts, not without a very pointed look at his brother.

Toriel can't help but laugh, she almost chokes on the food in her mouth. "I could lend you my cookbook after the meal if you'd like, Papyrus."

The skeleton is about to answer when Sans chuckles in  _ that _ way, and suddenly he's glaring daggers at his brother, who (obviously) doesn't let it dissuade him.

"would you say it's a-"

"SANS,  _ NO _ ."

"- _ layered _ experience?"

"UGH!"

Toriel bursts out laughing, Frisk laughs, but Alphys just buries her face in her hands silently.

"Oh my, Sans, you seems quite  _ saucy _ today!"

" **OH MY GOD!!!** "

"pffffhah! i dunno, tori. maybe i should  _ mince _ my words?"

" **_STOP!!!!!_ ** "

"Heeheehee! Perhaps! Your brother seems to be...  _ pasta _ his limits!"

" **_AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!_ ** "

Sans tries to answer, except that a skeletal hand covers his mouth and forcibly shuts him up. " **NO!** "

The shorter skeleton just raises his own hands in defeat, but even after his brother releases him and gives one final glare, he and Toriel still share a conspiratorial glance and giggle before they resume their meal. Papyrus, meanwhile, just clears his nonexistent throat and turns back to the former queen. "YES, I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO PERUSE YOUR COOKBOOK, TORIEL!"

Toriel can't help one last snicker before she manages to compose herself again. "That is very good, Papyrus. I will be sure to bring it to you before you leave."

"THANK YOU, TORIEL!"

Sans glances at her, and she just knows by his grin he has a pun in his skull, but for the sake of his brother, he keeps quiet.

After that, the meal goes by mostly in silence, just the noise of forks on ceramic and of chewing filling the room. Toriel tries to engage Alphys in conversation, asking about how her job as the Royal Scientist is going, but the lizard only a vague half-answer, so she doesn't press the issue. It's Frisk to gets her talking by asking about her favorite anime, and suddenly she becomes the polar opposite of her own shy demeanor, talking loud and fast about the plot, the characters, trying to explain what anime is to Toriel, until she catches herself and (literally) turns red from head to tail and clams up again, despite Toriel's insistence that she doesn't mind. The former queen even agrees to watch it sometime, perhaps, if she ever leaves the Ruins.

Once dinner is finished, and Sans and Toriel share another round of puns that, due to Papyrus' extremely vocal protests, they have to cut short yet again, Toriel brings out the pie and serves her guests again. This time it's Sans' turn to ask for a cookbook, the one on pastries, and she, again, agrees with a smile. After he and Alphys showed up with a weak and malnourished Frisk in tow, all those months ago, she'd become extremely distrustful of the skeleton, but the child's own insistence coupled with Sans' ongoing explanation and his irresistible love for puns swayed Toriel's opinion back around eventually.

At long last, the pie is done as well. Toriel gathers the dirty dishes and brings them to the sink to wash while the others wait at the table. Sans actually offers to help her and she gladly agrees. While he washes, she dries everything with a little bit of fire magic and puts it all away, and in the privacy of the kitchen they share even more puns and Toriel actually drops one of the plates in a fit of laughter, but Sans catches it somehow and hands it back to her. They can still hear Papyrus' voice get louder at the table with every pun, but he can't stop them here!

With the dishes done, everyone gathers around the table again, briefly. Papyrus drags the armchair back into place, and Frisk drags Alphys over to it to show her the book on snail facts. Toriel brings the other seat back to her room, but she invites Sans to join her so she can show him a few puns she's written in her diary. He even suggests a few additions, but Sans leaves while she's writing them down.

By the time she returns to the living room, the mood seems to have shifted drastically, as though a gust of cold wind just blew past. Frisk has the snail book against their chest like a shield, and both them and Alphys are standing by the armchair awkwardly.

"Where is Papyrus?"

"i sent'im home. he gets antsy if he stays aways from the puzzles too long."

"And you two?"

Sans glances at Alphys. The lizard and the child shift away from the chair.

"you're gonna want to sit down."

Something feels wrong. But, Toriel has no choice but to comply, even if she's still staring at the three gathered around her in puzzlement. Frisk puts the book away and comes stand beside her with a hand on her arm. Sans and Alphys are in front, looking at each other and sharing a nod. The lizard is tugging on the neckline of her dress nervously, looking at everything but Toriel herself.

"O-okay, so, uh... There's s-something you need to kn-now. It's... I-I mean, this isn't the b-best word to describe it, b-but... A-and we weren't trying to h-hide it either! We were j-just... waiting for the, um, r-right moment. Y-yeah. So, w-what I'm trying to s-say is that... I-I..."

Alphys has to pause to gulp down a lump in her throat and try to calm herself.

"Your s-son... Asriel is... w-well, not exactly  _ alive _ , b-but... th-there's not really a b-better word for it."

It's like a spear through the former queen's soul.

"... _ what? _ "

Toriel's voice is faint. Weak. Barely above a whisper.

Not for long.

"Take me to him!" she suddenly bursts out, cutting Alphys' stuttering attempts to keep talking with a hand that suddenly clutches the lizard's shoulder that makes her yelp in surprise.

But it's Sans who responds. "can't. we'd love to, but he's in a bad place right now, and we wanna help him."

Toriel's attention shifts to the skeleton. She leans back again, almost oblivious to Frisk's little soothing touches on her arm, clutching at her chest, breath hitching and heart racing. "Why? How?! What's wrong with him?!"

Sans shakes his head. "can't say. it's something he'd probably rather tell you about himself once we've helped him out. but to do that we're gonna need some dust from ya."

" **_What?!_ ** "

The shout bursts out of her almost before she's even aware of it, but both Alphys and especially Frisk hurry to soothe her, saying that it's okay, they're just going to draw some blood and that'll be it, she'll be fine!

It's Frisk's knowledge that catches Toriel's attention the most. "You knew of this, Frisk?"

The child admits that yes, they knew, though they at least look rightfully abashed for it and apologize for keeping secrets.

"yeah, we've been talking to them through the phone. they've been helping us a little with the plan actually."

For a few seconds, Toriel is speechless. Her gaze bounces from Sans to Frisk and back, and she just can't wrap her head around it. Frisk! Her own child, keeping such a great and terrible secret from her! And Sans! The voice behind the door, who brightened her days with puns and jokes! How?! It doesn't make sense! In the end, her eyes fixate on the skeleton.

"Please! Tell me! I want to help, anything at all!  _ Please! _ "

Sans raises his hands and shakes his hands again. "hey, s'not up to me. it was the kid's idea to keep it a secret, and i trust'em. we just need some blood."

Toriel's gaze ricochets back to Frisk, but they're looking up at her with such pleading eyes, they don't even say anything, and yet Toriel can't bring herself to doubt them, ever after such a monumental revelation. She squeezes her eyes shut, takes a deep, shaky breath, and finally, nods once.

"Ve-ery well. I will... trust Frisk as well." Another glance at the child, and a reassuring nod and smile in return. Toriel takes in another steadying breath, gulps down the lump in her throat with some difficulty, and looks back at the pair. "How will you draw the blood?"

At that, Sans grins in his usual way and steps aside, pulling one hand out of his pocket. "we'll take a shortcut."

He waves the hand, and suddenly a crack splits the air, darker than the darkest pit as it quickly widens upward and out, until it's big enough that even Toriel can pass through comfortably, and the black gives way to a dark room beyond. The former queen is, again, speechless, but Sans responds to her questioning look before she has to say anything.

"a little trick i learned from someone," he says simply.

Alphys takes his hand and steps through, and then he offers it for Toriel to take. "you gotta be touching me to go through," he adds.

After a moment's hesitation, she rises to her feet and does just that, but before she goes in she also takes Frisk's hand and brings them along. Toriel looks back just in time to see the crack shrink and close behind them. A light comes on, and Toriel finds herself in a long room. The far end has a row of three sinks, and next to her are three stretchers side by side.

Alphys returns, fumbling with her labcoat over the dress. "L-lie down, please," she stammers, indicating the cots with a hand before hurrying past toward the end of the room.

The only reason Toriel doesn't comply immediately is because she looks down at Frisk, and they again encourage her. They accompany her to one of the cots and stay by her side when she lies down, so she's not alone when Sans goes after Alphys. There's some metallic noises from the end of the room, the voices of the two monsters too low to make out, and then they're back, wheeling a little cart along. On it are a bottle of alcohol, a bag for collecting the blood with a needle on the end of a tube, a length of rubber, and a piece of soft fabric.

Alphys brings the cart to the other side of Toriel's cot and transfers everything to a lower shelf on it. "Stretch o-out your arm like this, a-and clench your fist," she says, maneuvering Toriel's limb into position, with the elbow on top of the cart to keep it level, and rolls up her sleeve.

The lizard ties the rubber around the former queen's upper arm and taps on the inside of her elbow, then grabs the bottle of alcohol. She first wipes on the spot she tapped with the fabric, then washes her hands with some of it, lets them dry, and grabs the needle at the end of the tube. She taps her claws over the vein again and ruffles up the fur to see the skin underneath. "You're g-going to feel a l-little sting," Alphys says before piercing the skin.

Toriel makes a noise of discomfort, but it's only momentary. Alphys tapes the tube in place, then check to make sure the blood is filling the bag. "D-don't move your arm," she concludes before stepping away and out of the room.

"are you gonna be fine here with the kid?" Sans asks.

"...I believe so," Toriel replies after a moment.

Sans leaves. Frisk is still there by Toriel's other side, hands on her arm, smiling reassuringly, a smile the former queen can't help but return before resting her head and looking at the ceiling.

She's going to have a lot to think about tonight.


	4. Life and Limb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, another chapter already!  
> Also, please note the change in archive warnings.
> 
> Enjoy!

Yesterday, at about this time, Sans called them and told them everything was ready. The new SPaDE Machine was complete. It was just waiting to be assembled in Waterfall.

The time had finally come for Frisk to do their pacifist journey through the rest of the Underground.

It hasn't been a normal journey. That would've been impossible, now that they've spent almost a year living with Toriel, and the former queen has gotten to know not only Sans in person, but also Alphys and Papyrus. Toriel knows a little bit about what's going on behind the scenes now. It was never a matter of getting past her after Sans kidnapped Frisk so long ago, but a matter of talking to Toriel enough to make her understand that this was the best option for not just Frisk, but monsterkind as a whole.

Luckily, they succeeded.

Last night, they told Toriel about it, and to their immense relief she smiled and told them she'd prepare a meal for them to take when they left in the morning. Frisk went to sleep, woke up, had breakfast, and hugged Toriel goodbye, promising to call her later in the same day and telling her to be ready to head out into the Underground itself.

Since then, things have been going according to plan, mostly. Papyrus already knew Frisk, of course, but they agreed to go through his puzzles anyway just to make him happy. They even had the fight at the edge of Snowdin, on that foggy path leading into the warmer air of Waterfall.

Undyne was the same as always, down to the very last spear thrown at Frisk's heart. They almost died once, even! They spent so long with Toriel they got rusty at dodging attacks. But in the end, they made it to Hotland, past Sans' guard stand, and managed to pour the water over the Captain's head to help her, and, of course, hang out with her later with Papyrus' help.

Alphys already knew them too, obviously, but Mettaton didn't, so she had to pretend not to either to make sure things played out as they should. Other than that, and the encounter with Sans in the Hotel that wasn't marred by the usual death threat, Hotland passed by smoothly as well. Frisk had actually missed going through the show with Mettaton, they had a blast putting on their best performance for the crowd.

Before continuing, Frisk turned around to get the call from Undyne. They retraced their steps all the way back to Snowdin, to get the letter for Alphys. They went to the date, and waited for Undyne to show up, and then headed back to the Lab to find Alphys standing in front of the elevator that leads to the old labs. They'd talked to her about it, about how revealing the amalgamates before that point was too risky and might throw off the pacifist path, but by then that wouldn't be an issue anymore. Frisk offered her a few encouraging words, and moved on.

Then, a quick trip through the Capital, with only a brief pause to call Toriel and tell her to head to New Home, and Frisk is stepping into the familiar yellow radiance that marks the final stretch of their journey.

The Golden Hall.

They Save, and walk on. Like clockwork, the shortcut opens ahead and Sans steps in front of them, grinning as always. But Frisk knows this grin is genuine, unlike so many others.

For a few seconds, they just stare at each other.

"well," the skeleton says, "y'already know all my lines, kid." He steps aside and makes an 'after you' motion. "just hurry up and get this over with, i got something i need to get off my chest."

Frisk just nods and moves past him, into the gray hall beyond. They stop and wait just outside the throne room, where they can hear Asgore moving about, humming a tune to himself. After a minute or two, Sans joins them alongside Toriel, and together the three of them head into the king's garden.

Things happen a little differently, but not in any significant way. Toriel berates her husband. Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys arrive, one by one. Flowey shows up and seizes everyone. They Fight. And Save him. And...

Frisk stands at the cliff, surrounded by their friends, looking out into the orange sky of a setting sun.

Papyrus is the first to leave, as always. Sans follows shortly after, though he heads back into the mountain. Undyne goes next, and Alphys after her, but she catches herself and mumbles something along the lines of 'g-going this way instead' and ducks back into the tunnel as well. Then, Asgore goes, and Toriel asks them what they're going to do, and Frisk tells her she has something to take care of, and they'll just catch up to everyone soon, okay?

"Of course, Frisk. Be safe," is Toriel's response, along with a hug before she turns and heads down the mountain path as well.

Frisk breathes a sigh of relief.

Their eyes go to the setting sun again.

One part of the plan is done. Monsterkind is free.

Now it's Gaster's turn.

The human heads back into the shade of the tunnel. They find Alphys waiting in the little room between the exit and the king's garden. "H-hey, Frisk. It's time, i-isn't it?"

Frisk just nods.

Alphys fidgets and tries to take a steadying breath. "O-okay. Let's go then."

They retrace their steps together. Frisk kind of wishes they could stop and talk to all the monsters along the way, but they know that, after they're done with Gaster, it'll be Asriel's turn, and he doesn't have long before he reverts to a flower. The quicker they get the doctor back, the better. They walk in silence, and Frisk only spares a smile and wave to the monsters that greet them. In Hotland, they take the boat ferry.

"Tra la la~ The air smells sunny tonight~"

Before long, they're at the spot, where Sans is already at work. Or at least, he's trying his hardest to be. There's a shortcut wide open on the wall opposite to the one with the doorframe outline drawn in chalk, and he's trying to heft a large vat of DT Extract over the threshold of the shortcut by himself. Alphys hurries to help him. The skeleton's hoodie is hanging open and has nothing underneath, making it obvious that Chara's soul pod is no longer hidden in his chest. But Frisk knew that'd happen, he had to take it out to get the VD Extract, anyway, and since they're going to solve the issue of Flowey skulking around soon, one way or the other, there's no reason to keep it hidden anymore.

With three pairs of hands working together, the SPaDE Machine is assembled. A large, rectangular frame is bolted to the wall, around the chalk outline of the door they can't see, with a trio of thick tubes running through the metallic shell, visible like a mutant DNA strand. Two terminals are put together on either side and secured in place, one for controlling the flow of DT and VD, the other for monitoring everything. Putting the two together messes up the readouts, they need to stay separated. The last part is a massive battery on wheels, that they drag in and connect to the monitoring station, to power everything without Sans having to keep that huge shortcut open.

The crack shrinks and closes.

Everything is ready.

"alright, fire it up," the skeleton says. He's at the monitoring station, and Alphys at the control terminal.

A low, mechanical whirr starts on the lizard's side. It grows to a dull rumble. There's a gurgle, a hiss, a noise like groaning metal, and then the shining red of Determination begin to flow, up one side of the metal doorframe, across, down the other side, then back around. Frisk feels the hairs on the back of their neck stand up. The air feels electrified.

"steady flow so far. start up the black."

Again, Alphys' side whirrs. The rumble grows louder, and there's another, deeper gurgle, before the Void Extract starts flowing, an oily fluid of the purest black that entwines with the red around the outline of the door. The surface of the stone inside the outline seems to shift, somehow. Like it's... vibrating, maybe? It feels different, but it isn't at the same time. Frisk can tell, but they're not really sure how exactly.

"okay, doing good. now the static fluid."

Static Fluid, the thing besides raw yellow magic that comes from Distilling JT Extract. Bright , golden, liquified electricity joins the red and black, crackling, shifting like a slightly-broken neon sign, and suddenly the change on the wall is _visible_ , like a very faint overlay of TV static across the surface of the blue stone. The air is filled with static, Frisk feels goosebumps forms all down their limbs. They're standing right in front of the metal doorframe, waiting.

"now we're getting somewhere. alright alph, give it just a little bit more yellow, just... let's say 5 milliliters more, then start bumping up the red, nice and slow. the black seems fine for now."

Alphys' hands are moving across the control panel. The Static Fluid shows no visible change, but the flow of Determination begins to increase noticeably, getting brighter, faster, ever-so-slowly. Frisk actually feels a shiver ripple up their spine, the air is becoming incredibly charged now. The static over the blue gets stronger along with the red, so much starts hurting their eyes and they have to look away, but they keep it in their peripheral vision.

"a little more black, alph, 10 ml, and keep pumping up the red."

The static grows, and grows, and grows, until it's like the blue rock as given way to a massive screen tuned to nothing, just shifting specks of black and white and color, and then...

"stop!"

The red is almost too bright to look at directly. It's flowing fast and smooth, shining, tinting the rest of the wall purple with its radiance. And there, inside the metal doorframe, is a tall, wide, featureless gray door, with an equally gray knob. There's a deep, ominous hum in the air, completely unrelated to the noise of the machine itself.

Sans steps back, scans the door up and down with his eyes, and chuckles. "welp. nothing's broken yet." His gaze goes down to Frisk. "your turn, kid."

The human nods and steels themself.

Just like that first and only time they found this very same door, in what now seems like a lifetime, they step forward and grab the handle. It twists silently, not a single squeak, not a trace of resistance in whatever mechanism is behind it. The door opens inward, still utterly silent, to a short, narrow corridor and a small room with no other exits. Rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites, line the walls and ceiling like the fangs of a great beast, the same bleached, flat gray as the door. A light that comes from nowhere fills the space, leaving no room for shadows to form.

And there, at the center of it all, is the tall black shape they remember, with the white, misshapen head and hands, one collapsed eye socket, the other watching them like a hawk.

Gaster is smiling, a smile so wide and thankful it makes Frisk smile as well as they step into the gray. Immediately, they're engulfed by the silence. They can still hear the sounds from outside, Sans' voice as he tells Alphys to lower the DT flow, but it's like they're coming in through a layer of thick fog, slightly lower and muffled. But Frisk just moves deeper, until they've come right up to the molten monster, close enough that, when they hold out a hand, he takes it gladly. His semi-solid fingers more so engulf Frisk's own than actually hold them; the sludge feels bitingly cold, but impossibly smooth, not sticky at all.

Frisk starts leading him back toward the door. His sludge seems to resist the movement, but after a moment it relents and he starts sliding along after them, a trail of deepest black left in his wake like an oil spill. Outside, Sans tells Alphys to lessen the DT flow again. Frisk has to move slowly so Gaster can keep up, but soon, they reach the d-

Frisk's hand hits a wall.

There's nothing visible there, but it's like one of Sans' shortcuts if he's not touching you. The human just can't get through. An invisible barrier, impossible to detect, and impossible to breach.

"ah, damn. didn't see that coming."

"F-Frisk? Can you... n-not get out?"

They shake their head, then look back at Gaster. He seems worried, and then he looks behind him, and Frisk looks too, and the trail he's left seems to be... expanding? Slowly, but surely, reaching outward in tendrils that, the longer they watch, the more obvious it becomes that they're curving toward the door.

"dammit. lower the vd, alph."

Sans steps back again to look at the door, then holds out his hand. His eye flashes, but nothing happens. Gaster shakes his head sadly. His gaze goes to his hand around Frisk, and he pulls away, only for the human to stumble out back into the damp air of Waterfall.

They immediately spin back around and protest vehemently, why did he let go?! They're here to get him out! They stomp back up to the door, Determined to go in, Sans hurries to tells Alphys to turn down the red flow, but Gaster just shakes his head and gestures with his hands, NO, BAD, BLACK SPREADING, his molten fingers say, but Frisk doesn't care! They're getting him out!

They step back in before he can stop them, and the room seems to lurch around them, Gaster actually has to catch Frisk so they don't fall down. The black behind him explodes outward and only stops when Alphys scrambles to turn down the DT and VD flow outside, but the edges continue to creep outward. And now Frisk is at eye-level with Gaster, held aloft with his hands around their ribcage.

The human immediately demands he put them down so they can pull him through the door, and he does put them down, but he doesn't take their hand, shaking his head again, signing BAD over and over. Even when Frisk stomps their foot and lunges for him, the black sludge shies away from their fingers and they grab nothing. Outside, Alphys is still having to constantly turn down the flow of everything but the yellow at Sans' command, until he gets tired of the stalemate and steps up to the door himself, which actually makes Gaster full-on _shout_ " **NO!** "

For a second, everything stops. Even _he's_ surprised. But a quick glance behind him at the encroaching black gets him past the surprise quickly. " **Sans, no, you cannot expose yourself to the Void again! There's no telling what will happen to you, to your soul! You could very well die! Please, I will not have my failings be responsible for any more suff-!** "

He's cut off when Frisk buries their hand up to the wrist into the amorphous black of his body, grabs a handful of it, then extends their other arm to Sans with a very obvious, very Determined look. " **NO, DON'T-!** " Gaster tries to protest, but it's too late.

Sans' eye flares, he shoves his hand through the door just as Alphys' terminal starts whining loudly in protest, both Frisk and Gaster's chests are wreathed in blue, and they come hurtling out onto the blue stone of Waterfall, Frisk into Sans' arms, Gaster in a black heap, and the whine grows to a loud crackling as Alphys slams her hand on the failsafe and forces the machine to suck in everything flowing through the tubes and lock it down. The door flickers and vanishes with a dry snap, the control terminal gives one final, worrying rattle and stills, and everything goes quiet.

Gaster's form is roiling, quivering, almost bubbling, parts of it vibrating so hard it's a wonder there aren't any splatters, and then it begins to shrink. The white of his head pokes out, then his hands. The quivering mass, white parts included, slows and solidifies as it continues to pull inward into a skeletal shape, until, finally, it stops, and Gaster is left on his hands and knees, a lingering shiver rippling through his new, gangly frame one final time before his breath breaks out into heaving, hungry gasps. When his one functional socket wrenches itself open, the eye light inside shifts from misty red to the proper little ball of white.

But there's no time to celebrate.

"Sans!" Alphys' voice cries out.

Frisk hurries to his side just as his gaze snaps in their direction and they tug on his arm, and behind them Sans is curled up on the floor on his side, clutching at the arm he put in the door, sweat beading in his skull and eyes squeezed shut, breaths hissing through his teeth in the effort not to scream. There's black on him, spreading from his fingertips, making the bone crumble to equally dark dust before their very eyes. By the time Gaster manages to stumble his way over and crash onto his knees next to the skeleton, the distal phalanges have already been consumed.

" **Sans! Oh dear, stay awake!** " He turns to Alphys. " **The needles! Get the healing serum! Hurry!** "

Alphys doesn't even bother with a reply. She fumbles to dig out her phone and tap to the right icon, to make a hologram appear over it showing a cube with several items inside, and she reaches in and pulls out a metal case and fumbles again to open it without spilling everything inside. When she finally manages to take one of the three needles filled with serum, Sans' fingers are gone and the black is eating away at his palm and wrist.

Gaster swipes the needle out of the lizard's hand and completely ignores her sudden flinch and yelp and how her claws fly up to her head, it's Frisk who has to hurry over and hold her steady, but they keep their eyes on the two skeletons. " **Sans! I need your soul!** " Gaster shouts, one hand on his distant grandson's shoulder, the other ready to use the needle filled with green.

After a delay that gives the black enough time to crumble his wrist into dust and start creeping up his forearm, the skeleton's soul forms, black on white, with a new smaller black spot on the edge connected to the one in the center, and Gaster wastes no time in grabbing it and plunging the needle in and emptying it in a single motion, making Sans give a strangled noise of pain. The green soaks into the soul, overtaking the white for a moment, then fades, and the black eating at Sans' bones slows, but it doesn't stop, so Gaster grabs his arm, wrapping his hands firmly on either side of the elbow joint and-

*crk*

Frisk flinches.

The noise of dust cascading to the floor is drowned out by Sans' scream.

His tainted forearm is gone, crumbled before it even left Gaster's now dusty fingers.

When the echoes fade, there's only the noise of Sans' gasping breath and the soft rattle of bones while he shivers. His soul dissipates and sinks back into him in wisps of white and black. His sleeve unbunches from where Gaster pushed it up and hides the boneless end of the humerus, and then it just sits there, empty and deflated.

" **Sans. I am terribly sorry. Please, talk to me,** " Gaster calls, hand still on his grandson's shoulder.

Frisk steps close as well and puts their own hands on the skeleton's whole arm, feeling the shivers slowly abate, the heaving of his chest lessen with every breath. They feel Alphys scoot next to them, with a hand on her head still, but she doesn't touch Sans.

After a while, his breathing has eased enough it's mostly normal, and the sweat is gone. His sockets crack open, and he lets go of what's left of his arm to push himself sitting, still a bit shivery but mostly stable, with blue rock dust clinging to his skull that he wipes off haphazardly before looking down at his empty sleeve. He even lifts his half-arm to watch the empty fabric hang.

"well..." he starts, "seems like i'm all right now."

It was his left arm he lost.

Alphys groans and facepalms. Frisk giggles, and even Gaster can't contain an amused chuckle. " **I'm glad to hear it. And... thank you, Sans.** "

The skeleton shakes his head. "ey, don't mention it. ya just needed a hand."

Frisk has to cover their mouth to contain their laughter. Gaster just smiles. " **I suppose I did. Can you stand?** "

"let's find out."

Both Frisk and Gaster help him to his feet. Alphys seems awfully busy tidying up the needles inside the metal case she fumbled with earlier. Sans keeps his hand on the wall until he's sure he won't topple right over, but he seems fine.

"yep, i'm good. how about you?" His eyes scan Gaster's gangly frame. "ya look like y'grew ten feet in the void."

That brings the former doctor's attention to himself. " **It seems I did!** " He has to support himself on the wall to as he rises unsteadily, he even laughs as he does so, a gleeful, child-like laugh. When he stands fully he's almost double Sans' height, and it's pretty obvious he has no idea how to work his long limbs below his waist. " **I haven't felt gravity in so long...** " he muses aloud.

Now that things aren't so dire, his new form is visible. He seems to be wearing a single-piece uniform, all black, the same flat black as the Void itself that doesn't reflect light. It's more like someone cut a hole in reality in the shape of an elongated skeleton. There's also a sort of spoon-shaped thing hanging behind his legs like coattails, for lack of a better word. The only things that aren't black are his hands, the ends of his arms peeking out of the wide rim of his sleeves, his head, and the top of his ribcage showing on the neckline of the black ensemble. His right socket is dead and empty, motionless while the other one emotes, and connected to a wide gap atop his skull; the other connects down to the edge of his mouth. The inside of his head seems to be filled with the same unnatural black as his clothes. What few of his bones are visible make it obvious his entire skeleton has been fused together, but his hands still have the holes he had in the Void.

And, most interesting of all, he has no neck or wrists. His hands and head are simply hovering in place where the joints bones would be, pivoting as they should but completely unconnected. He even moves his fingers through the gap on the opposite wrist and across the much wider one below his chin with a little chuckle. " **How odd...** " His voice is warped, sort of layered over itself, but lightly so.

"Yeah, th-that's great," Alphys suddenly pipes up in a grumpy tone. "But you just g-gave me a headache!"

" **...What do you mean?** "

"W-when you took the needle and t-touched me! All these... m-memories came back to me, a-and now my h-head hurts."

Gaster's eye widens. " **Really?** " He lowers himself onto his knees and sits on his ankles, holding out a hand. " **Try again.** "

After a moment's hesitation, Alphys complies. As soon as her hand rests on his she flinches and her other hand flies up to her temple. "Ngh. Y-yeah. I... I-I remember you?" She looks up at him through squinted eyes. "I-I was just an intern w-when you... d-disappeared, wasn't I?"

Gaster is speechless for a moment.

" **...Fascinating,** " he says eventually, looking at his hand.

This is where Frisk steps in and carefully says that maybe they should get going? They still need to help Asriel.

" **Ah, yes, of course. My apologies.** " He gets to his feet again, still unsteady, but he's getting better. " **We can examine all this properly later.** "

Alphys gets up as well and dusts off her labcoat; she has the metal case with the needles in her claws. Sans tries tying his empty sleeve into a knot single-handed, and Frisk helps him. While the skeleton creates a shortcut to the very start of the Ruins, the human asks Gaster if he's okay.

" **Yes, I couldn't feel better, Frisk. And please, call me Wing.** "


	5. A Third Chance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was initially going to write and post this chapter yesterday, but the reason I didn't was because this one's illustrated! So I spent almost the whole afternoon and night yesterday drawing that instead.
> 
> Oh! And I forgot to add a link to the art I've got of my Gaster, so I'm editing it in now. Just click [here](http://dragoncurl.tumblr.com/tagged/wingdin/chrono).

Everything is fading.

He's watching the flowers sway in an unseen breeze, but he can't feel the wind. His eyes are filled with gold. He touches his chest, but he can't feel it. Not really. This body isn't real. It's just a projection. A hologram. An illusion. A crude simile of the body he once had, before...

Asriel's hand slips and hangs limp by his side.

He's just waiting. All that power, all those souls he released back into the Underground, they left a little something when they flew away, just a tiny bit of energy from each one all curled up inside him sustaining a form he doesn't have. He's still a flower. He just... looks different right now. And that energy is fading with every second, crumbling away like dust and slipping right through his fingers splayed out across over a sternum he doesn't have.

He wonders what Frisk is doing? They made him remember what it was like, to have a family. To have Chara again. But... they weren't like Chara.

He wraps his arms around himself. An empty motion from a fake body, but it makes him feel better. Maybe.

No, they were nothing like Chara, outside of their similar looks. He was so desperate to have Chara back, even beyond his own parents, but... Frisk was... they actually _cared_ about him, even though they barely knew him, didn't they? He could feel it when they hugged him, the scorching heat of their soul, their _love_ , it made him feel all raw and cut up inside, like there was a gaping, ragged hole in his chest where his own soul should be. Not even Asgore and Toriel had managed to make him feel anything like that when he first became Flowey.

Where Frisk was a warm, comforting hug, Chara was a dagger in the back, and a warning that he shouldn't trust so easily. They never actually did that, of course, but Asriel is starting to suspect it was only because he would've died if they had. He's a Boss Monster too, just like his parents, but that wouldn't have mattered. Chara was always so strong, they could've probably fought everyone in the Underground and still won. He remembers finding a knife under their pillow one night that they took from the kitchen, and their only response was a mysterious 'you never know what might happen'. He never saw the knife again after that.

Asriel looks down at himself, at his white-furred hands, his claws, the soft green of his sleeves and the yellow stripes across his chest, at the black not-fabric over his legs and his toes digging into the earth below, where his real form is. A part of him wonders how much longer he has. That leftover energy is still fading, but the more it does, the less he feels it, it's getting hard to judge just how much is left.

His eyes go to the patch of golden flowers again, then past them, to the cave wall and up, up, all the way up to that distant spot of hope that has claimed seven lives. It used to be covered by the Barrier, but... he can see the brown stone outside, even from all the way down here. Monsters are free because of him. He can at least take solace in that. One last good deed that's probably not enough to balance out all the bad he did over his countless Resets, but at least it's something, and he's Determined to cling to that notion and not sully his record any more from here on out.

But being Determined never stopped him before.

Asriel is scared. He's scared of being a flower again. He's scared of losing himself again. Chara's words come drifting to him in the ebb and flow of his memories, calling him weak, a crybaby, wasting all that power, what was he thinking?! He's a failure! He _deserves_ to be alone and soulless for etern-

That voice.

Frisk's voice, behind him, calling his name.

It breaks the spell. He stands up straight and looks back, and there they are, the same as before, with that kind smile he can't help but reciprocate.

But it wavers.

"Don't worry about me," he says, looking away, hugging his arm. "Someone has to take care of these flowers."

He doesn't see them move, but suddenly they're hugging him all over again, and he feels his arms closing tight around them despite everything and he clings to them, like a castaway clings to a raft, and his chest feels more torn and empty than it ever has, and the only reason he doesn't break down in tears is because he shoves them off and turns away. Only a single dry sob rattles his shoulders before he forces the lump in his throat back down.

"Frisk, please leave me alone. I can't come back." Asriel feels their hand on his shoulder, hot like the sun itself, and pulls away. "I just can't, okay? I don't want to break their hearts all over again." Their _souls_ , he says in his mind. He sees the heart shapes shatter before his very eyes, once, twice, countless times over countless Resets, but then he blinks and the image is gone, nothing but gold petals filling his vision.

"It's better if they never see me."

Their hand is on his shoulder again, but this time he doesn't have the will to move away. He doesn't move at all. He actually smiles despite everything. "...why are you still here? Are you trying to keep me company?"

They say that no, not exactly. They brought some friends to meet him.

"What?" That's what makes him turn back. "What do you mean?"

Frisk just directs his gaze to the archway at the end of the tunnel and calls out.

Not a moment later, someone steps into view. It's Sans, with one sleeve tied below the elbow? Where's his arm? Then Alphys, looking the same as ever, and...

Um...

A third, really tall monster that Asriel knows? Maybe? They (he?) feel familiar somehow.

"heya," the skeleton chimes in his usual tone. Alphys stammers out a little embarrassed 'h-hi'. She's clutching something to her chest, it looks like a little metal box. And the third monsters, he stops between the other two, towering over everyone, with clothes that somehow make Asriel think of the darkness between dying and Resetting, but his smile is gentle.

" **Greetings, Asriel,** " he says, holding his hands behind his back.

"Um... hi?" The not-flower looks at everyone, then back to the human. "Frisk, why are they here?" He glances at Sans again, just to make sure the skeleton isn't trying anything funny. He doesn't really trust him.

Frisk says they're going to help him get his soul back.

Asriel can't believe his ears.

"What? But... h-how? That's..."

The third monster moves -who is he? Asriel knows him, he's sure of it, but from where??? He steps close and comes down to his knees, then sits on his ankles and holds out a hand. " **You hand, please,** " he asks gently. His voice is all weird.

Asriel complies out of sheer bewilderment, but as soon as they touch it's like a lightning bolt suddenly strikes him, ow! He yells and flinches and tries to move away, but the other monsters holds his hand firm and doesn't let him and Frisk is there too, with their arms around him keeping him upright. The pain is so intense he can't even think straight for a few seconds, but when it starts fading, it's like a movie reel suddenly starts playing at double time in his mind, rushing through scenes madly, and yet he understand everything.

It's Gaster! He remembers!

He has to squint through the pain to look at the doctor, but he's sure of it, even though Gaster looks so different now. What even happened to him? It's like he just vanished one day. There's one memory that sticks out from the jumbled mess, though.

"...you made me. You made Flowey."

Gaster's smile falls. He lets go and looks away but only for a moment. " **Yes, unfortunately. One of my many mistakes in my past life. But I am here to make amends. Alphys?** " The lizard shuffles forward and hands him the metal box, then goes back. He unlocks it with a little click, then opens it for Asriel to see inside.

Arranged in a neat row are twelve full syringes, all of them glowing with the swirling fluid within. The first six are all different colors, orange and yellow and green and cyan and blue and purple. The next two are both white and sort of look like they have glitter in them? They're the least glowy of the bunch. And the last four are all filled with green as well, but a brighter shade than the first one.

" **These are Extracts taken from the six human souls you used to free everyone, Asriel. And these,** " Gaster indicates the two white needles, " **contain dust from Asgore and Toriel, harvested from their blood. If you agree, I will inject you with all eight, and these, along with the Determination you already have and your essence, will hopefully combine to form a brand new soul for you in some way.** "

Asriel doesn't know what to say. He's just... staring at the colors.

Gaster goes on after a while. " **I cannot say if it will work. This isn't something that can be tested beforehand. It's a theory, at best. You may very well die for good, so if you choose not to go through with it, we'll understand. But the option is here if you want to take it.** "

Frisk's arm is still on his back. The heat of it feels like it's consuming him from the inside out, eating away at his body, like touching a lit match to the center of a piece of paper and letting the cinders spread, bright orange on black.

"I..."

He reaches a hand forward, then pulls it back.

The faces of every monster in the Underground flash past his eyes in a blur of color, each dissolving into dust one after the other.

"I-I don't..."

" **Asriel, this isn't a matter of 'deserving' it or not. I don't deserve to be here either. I didn't deserve to be saved. Trapping you in this soulless state was only one of my smallest offenses in my time as the Royal Scientist.** **_But I want to change_ ** **,** " Gaster says emphatically. " **What you've done as Flowey doesn't exclude you from at least trying. We all deserve a second chance.** "

Asriel stays silent.

After a while, it's Sans who pipes up with a chuckle. "do you think even the worst person can change? that everyone can be a good person, if they just try?"

Asriel looks at him. He knows those words. He _hates_ those words. _Flowey_ does.

Sans lifts his hand as a sign of peace. "hey, don't mind me. i'm willing to let bygones be bygones, kid. yer not the one with the problem here."

He looks at the syringes again. Then at Frisk.

The human doesn't say anything, but they're smiling encouragingly.

Alphys is looking at everything but him.

He looks at the needles again.

"I-I..."

His hands go to his chest, but suddenly they phase right through! Panic blossoms in Asriel's heart. When he looks down, he finds his form fading, becoming translucent, starting to dissipate like mist from the feet. His chest heaves with a gasp, the voice of Chara in his memory screams weak, _pathetic,_ **_murderer_ ** at him, but he squeezes his eyes shut and shakes it off.

"I... o-okay. I want to do it."

Gaster smiles and sets the box of syringes on the ground between them. " **Hold out your hands.** "

Asriel does. The doctor takes his wrists and holds his arms steady, and then his sleeves move on their own, splitting into four tendrils on either side, each wrapping around one of the needles. Gaster positions the colored ones along Asriel's upper arms, orange, yellow and green on one side, cyan, blue and purple on the other. The pair of white needles goes to his chest, right where his heart and soul should be.

"W-will it hurt?"

" **I don't know, but there will likely be some pain. Are you ready?** "

One last glance to Frisk, and Asriel breathes in deep, steels himself, and nods.

All eight needles pierce him at once. In unison, the plungers go down, and the Extracts and dust soak into him like a wildfire, scorching, hotter than even Frisk's own heat, taking over his entire body, his mind, dismantling every possible thread of coherent thought.

Asriel's world becomes pain. It _hurts_ , more than the first time he died, more than when he let himself fall into magma, more than absorbing the six souls and becoming Omega Flowey, more than any conscious mind should be able to comprehend. Time loses all meaning. Noise fills his ears, noise he can't even process, he has no idea if he's screaming or if it's the mountain coming down around him or reality itself coming undone. All he knows is **pain**. It sizzles and scorches and burns him to cinders only to put him back together and burn him again and it just keeps escalating more and more and more until he thinks he's going to go mad from it and then...

It stops.

All at once, everything goes quiet.

The only thing Asriel can hear is his own rasping breath.

He's lying on his side, with the cold hard stone under him. There's a smell like wet dirt and freshly-mown grass and golden flower in the air.

His eyes open. It takes a few blinks to bring everything into focus, but even then, he has to look around to make sense of what happened. He can't see the others. All around him is churned earth and vines, broken rock and inert plant matter. He must've lashed out.

Asriel sits up, and looks down.

He has a body, but it's different. It _feels_ different. His clothes are made of leaves, leaves he can feel are _attached_ to him, feel their every little shift, feel them rub against each other as he moves. And his limbs, they don't feel normal. They're much closer to the woody, unyielding flexibility of his former flower stem, and his skin isn't furry, but it's smooth like tree bark. Around his neck and atop his head are petals that he guesses must be gold, and he actually finds the starting nubs of horns there too! The leaves of his 'pants' are a dark green, not black. His claws are gone. The fingers just taper to hard points smoothly.

Did it work?

He brings his hands to his chest, searching, calling inward, and he feels it and pulls his fingers away, and they trail glowing mist in their wake, wisps of light that seep out of him in greater and greater numbers, coiling in on themselves, forming a tight ball of light, and then...

Asriel's soul forms.

It's shaped weird, closer to a four-leaf clover than a heart, but he doesn't care.

He has a soul!

His hands close around the lower half, and it's warm, like sunlight late in the afternoon, when the shadows are long and the wind brings whispers of night time. When a tear lands on it, he feels it, a patch of heat on his back that moves as the drop rolls down his soul and falls away.

Asriel's hands start to shake. The soul dissipates and flows back into his chest, just as more tears start to fall. He buries his face in his hands, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably, and suddenly he feels hair on his cheek, arms around him, and Frisk is there hugging him, and he clings to them and just lets himself cry for what feels like the first time in an eternity. The _emotions_ , he hasn't felt them in so long, it's such an intense surge of so many things at once all he can do is clutch Frisk tight to his chest and bawl his eyes out into their shoulders, until he's nearly cried himself hoarse.

The whole time Frisk is just there, silent, holding him close, letting him get it all out of his system, until he finally pulls away with a few last sobs, wiping at his eyes, laughing weakly.

He only talks again when he realizes Frisk has a large wet patch on their shoulder now. "Heh. Sorry. I guess i just had a lot bottled up."

They say it's okay. They don't mind. Is he okay?

Asriel has to look down at himself again. A part of him is afraid he's going to wake up and find out it's a nightmare. "Yeah, I think so? It feels kind of weird right now, but I think I'll be alright." He's smiling now, he can't help himself. "I actually have a soul again! Do you want to see it?"

Frisk says sure, if he wants to show them!

"Yeah, of course I do!" He brings it out again, and it's just as bright and warm as before, it makes him feel all giddy! He has a soul!!!

" **Interesting...** "

The soul flickers and vanishes, even before Asriel tries to grab it and stuff it back in his chest. Dammit, that scared him! It's Gaster again, he has his head poking up over the pile of stuff around them on... his hand? Did he pull his own head off?

He at least has the decency to give an abashed chuckle. " **Apologies. I didn't mean to intrude. You were taking so long I started to worry. But I'm glad you're alright, Asriel. You gave us quite a fright!** "

Asriel looks around him at the mess. "I... yeah, that just happened on it's own, sorry. I wasn't really aware of it." His eyes follow the green of the vines amidst the messy brown of broken soil. He can still feel them, but he's not... connected...?

Wait.

His hand goes behind him, then his gaze.

"I have a tail?!"

He does! It's poking out from between the leaves of his pants, white shifting to green before it buries itself in the dirt. He's still rooted, literally. His claw-like fingers start digging around it, and Frisk helps him, until they find the junction where he's connected to a bundle of his- no, _Flowey's_ underground network of vines. They're going to have to cut him loose.

" **Oh dear. Sans, can you get us a blade of some kind?** "

"sure thing," comes the skeleton's lazy drawl over the pile of dirt around Asriel.

A few moments later, Gaster's head ducks out of view, then comes back but on his shoulders again. " **Here.** " He lets a scalpel tumble down the broken rocks so Frisk can take it. They move behind Asriel and wipe some more dirt away to see better, then ask him if they can do it.

"Yeah, go ahead."

After what he just went through, the quick cut barely registers. He lifts his tail to find the end leaking sap, yellowish, thick and viscous, but clear like water. It stops after only one thick drop and hardens into an opaque shell, almost like a scab, but smooth. Frisk helps him to his feet so they can climb up the inside of the wall made by his vines, and Gaster helps them down the other side.

Asriel is left standing awkwardly next to Frisk, trying not to make eye contact. "So... I guess we're leaving?"

"yep," Sans nods.

"A-are you alright?" Alphys asks, looking Asriel up and down.

It makes him uncomfortable now, he's not sure why. "Yeah, mostly."

" **In due time, Alphys,** " Gaster intervenes. " **We have all the time in the world to understand all this properly.** " He turns on his heel. " **Come. Let's go see the stars.** "

He starts leading the way. Alphys follows shortly after, then Sans, and finally, Asriel and Frisk in the rear. He's holding their hand. Now that the initial shock and giddiness have worn off, Asriel's getting more and more worried.

He's not looking forward to meeting his parents again.


	6. Buttercups

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, I was initially going to end the fic here, but then I started feeling bad about the ending I had in mind and the chapter started getting way too long anyway, so we'll keep going for a while still. I've got something new in mind, the original ending just didn't sit right with me.  
> Also I realized I forgot to add Asriel to the character tags on the last chapter, that's fixed now.

Night.

Actual night, in fact, under a sky full of stars instead of a distant cave ceiling covered in glowing crystals.

The embers of a campfire glow in the center of a clearing surrounded by pines, their boughs rustling in the occasional chill wind. Above, constellations twinkle, unchanged since the days monsterkind was doomed to the bowels of the mountain looming over the scene over a millennium ago. Around the dying cinders is a group of monsters, supposedly sleeping, but it's hard to tell how many actually are aside from Asgore's rumbling breaths. They won't stay out here like this, of course, especially when the entire Royal Castle is literally at the very end of the tunnel leading into the mountain. But, just for now, just for this first taste of freedom, the group agreed that they'd spend the night outside and worry about how to deal with the humans in the morning. Sans helped get blankets for everyone.

Now, Undyne and Alphys are curled up together, closest to the dying fire; if either of them is awake, they're not letting it show. Toriel chose a tree to lean on, directly opposite to the corner Asgore is lying in, with the pieces of his armor in a pile nearby, edges catching the light of the stars and the embers. Sans made only a half-hearted attempt at pretending to go to sleep next to Papyrus before both of them went off somewhere to find a good stargazing spot. Frisk is in Toriel's lap under the blanket, safely bundled up against the chill, not exactly sleeping, but not awake either. They still catch the quiet 'pop' when Gaster suddenly vanishes from where he was just sitting. He's found out he can teleport now since they left the mountain.

Asriel is nowhere to be found, however.

Meeting his parents again wasn't quite as bad as he'd been dreading. They mostly just showered him in hugs and kisses and actually torn off a few leaves in their excitement, the can feel the bare patches of bark on his foliage in the wind. It's weird. Toriel and Asgore reassured him, over and over, that they'd missed him so much, that they couldn't believe he was back, that they didn't care he was different, that they were just happy to see him again. And, of course, they asked about what happened to him, why he was like this now, and he just...

He couldn't answer. He couldn't talk about it, not yet. Not so soon. Not with everything he'd have to tell them, and he'd probably need Gast- no, wait. _Wing's_ help. He doesn't like being called Gaster anymore. His name is Wing. Anyway, Asriel would need Wing's help explaining everything, and right now he's not really sure how to feel about the former doctor.

His parents understood, at least. He was told he could talk about it whenever he felt ready, and that they'd be there for him, always. A lot of tears and hugs later, everyone had calmed down and started looking for somewhere to settle down and make some fire.

But since then, Asriel's doubts have only grown. He waited until everyone else at least _looked_ asleep and snuck out of the little improvised camp, and as it turns out being half-plant (or full plant?) somehow helps with sneaking through the undergrowth. He left, and wandered a while, until he found this little cliff. It's not very tall, nowhere near the height of the precipice everyone first stepped out onto after the Barrier was destroyed. But still, it's a sheer face of craggy rock, tall and steep enough that no trees can grow of it and which leaves Asriel above the treetops, able to stare out into the world beyond with his feet dangling over the edge.

He has his arms in his lap, one hand poking at one of the bare spots where there's a leaf missing in his 'clothes'. His eyes are on the distant lights of a human city, sparkling like a bush full of fireflies. Or, more accurately in his mind's eye, like the eyes of countless demons staring at him through a hole in reality.

How will the humans react? How are things going to be from now on? At least before he had his Save Points, his Resets, but ever since Frisk came into play he lost that. He has no more guarantees, nothing to fall back on if things start going bad. The sun will bring with it a tidal wave of uncertainty for the future, not just his own but of every monster in the Underground, and Asriel is scared.

His claw-fingers pluck a leaf from his sleeve with just a tiny little pinprick of pain. He watches it flutter in the breeze in his hold, then lets it be carried away. His whole body is singing, he can feel every little movement the leaves make, every time they rub up against one another, rustling so low only he can hear.

Asriel's hand finds the mane of petals around his neck and strokes through it a few times. He pinches one of them and tugs on it. It comes off easily. Love me, love me not, until he's stripped off most of the petals between his chin and the first layer of leaves forming the collar of something that's meant to be a shirt. He lets each one drift away in the cold mountain air. Every time he plucks one out, there's just a tiny little sting that registers. Maybe plants just feel pain in a different way or something.

The same hand that plucked at his neck goes behind him and tugs his tail forward. He pries the scab-like bit of hardened sap off the end, but the wound doesn't leak this time. It's sort of dried out, actually. The plant skin around it looks wrinkled and shrunken, though it hasn't lost any color. He wonders vaguely if he's going to start growing roots out of his tail again, or if it'll turn into another area covered in leaves. He lets the limb rest loose by his leg.

Asriel wishes the wind would stop. It's unnerving feeling the leaves brushing up against each other. He's starting to feel naked. Raw and exposed. He's not cold, though. Plants have no body heat. Everyone else just feels really warm to him instead.

Is he going to grow up? He must, right? He's bigger and he has horns now, he didn't have them before taking Chara's soul so very long ago. That has to be a sign that all the time he spent in Resets must've... registered in his essence or whatever. It's weird to think about. And what about his parents? Are they going to start aging again? It was _their_ dust that went into making his new soul. He sort of hopes they do. The mere thought of them having to see him die again makes his stomach twist, and he's not even sure he has a stomach anymore!

His soul...

He pulls it out again. Its light illuminates the trees around him. He cradles it in his hands and traces the outline with a finger. Almost like a flower, but it's missing two petals.

This, at least, he doesn't (completely) hate seeing despite the weird shape. Fitting, that a plant wouldn't have a heart for a soul. Neither monster, nor human. Option C: none of the above. Still. It's worlds better than nothing at all, which was what he was stuck with for so long. The simple fact he can muster any feeling at all about it, and not just some phantom, half-formed simile, speaks volumes to how grateful he is. Mostly.

He's not really back. He's still a flower. After the whole ordeal was over, and his parents had made him cry his eyes out all over again, they found out his tears are actually sweet, just like nectar.

He's still a flower, deep down. Even his soul shows it.

Asriel is never coming back.

He's just...

...

...

...

He doesn't even know what to call himself.

But his reverie is broken by a quiet little 'pop' behind him. He doesn't get startled, though. Wing's been trying to practice his new power all evening, popping up all over the place quite literally. " **Oh my, heheh, sorry! So sorry, this teleportation business is more... complicated... than...** "

Asriel isn't looking at him. His soul is gone, but he's still staring at his hands, at the leaves around his wrists, wanting to tear them all off.

" **Asriel? Are you...?** "

He stays silent. One of his fingers idly pokes at a leaf, then goes down the seam to the stubby stem and pushes on it until the leaf snaps off and flutters away.

" **...Do you want to talk at all?** "

Asriel still isn't sure if he wants to talk to Wing. He just makes a vague noise, neither 'yes' or 'no'.

After a few moments, Wing sits next to him and lets his own legs hang over the edge. He can feel the other monster's gaze scrutinizing him, and he doesn't like it. He's already starting to wish Wing weren't there.

Silence hangs between them.

Then, Asriel notices a red glow in the corner of his eye, and when he looks he finds Wing cradling his own soul in his hands, and for a moment his bubbling anger fades away completely.

It's the right shape, sure, but it's nowhere close to a normal soul. The thing's black, the same all-absorbing black of his clothes, with searing red cracks zigzagging across the surface, splitting the black into polygonal pieces. And near the top, on the same side Wing has that wide gap on his skull, there's a piece missing, like a little wedge has been cut out of the soul with a scalpel.

" **It's ugly, isn't it?** " Wing says, and thankfully he doesn't wait for a response because Asriel is speechless. " **When I disappeared, it was because I fell into the Void. It's the place you go between dying and Resetting. But I did neither, and the Void doesn't like it when things from Reality fall into it. I was broken, in the most intimate sense possible. I felt myself shatter down to the smallest molecule, to the most minuscule grain of dust. I was undone. And yet...** "

Wing rubs his thumb along the front of the broken heart, following one of the cracks. " **I refused to die. I had Integrity, and Perseverance, and the Determination I both injected myself with and generated when I Fell on my side. What few scraps of my soul I was able to save, I stored in a shell of the very thing that was destroying me. This thing I call a soul is made out of the Void itself, molded and held together by Determination alone, the only thing left to me now. It was broken apart before, in pieces. My rescue forced everything together."**

The heart melts into mist and returns to its owner. Wing's one-eyed gaze shift to his sleeve, where the black splits into tendrils again. " **I'm not the same either. This... material clinging to me, it's both a part of me and not at the same time.** " The sleeve reforms, and he gestures to his whole frame. " **I don't feel naked like this, even though I technically am. This black sludge isn't my real body. But I am never getting my old body back now, and these... 'clothes' are only a reminder of the eternity I spent in the Void, watching helpless as my own world moved on without me. But I choose to see it as a blessing, not a curse.** "

The not-skeleton's gaze tries to meet Asriel's, but he shifts his own eyes away. Wing keeps talking, however. " **I understand why you dislike this new form, Asriel. It reminds you of a bad time in your life.** " He feels a bony hand on his shoulder. It's neither hot nor cold. Wing has no body heat either. " **But it is also a new beginning. I'm not saying you have to love it, or that my experiences compare to yours. This isn't a competition. But please, don't get caught up in the past. Look ahead. What happened can't be changed. The only thing we can do is move on, and try to better ourselves.** **_Both_ ** **of us.** " The hand moves away. " **And, if you really do want to shed your foliage...** "

Wing moves in the corner of Asriel's vision. It seems like he's twisting around to look at the mountain. " **...well, I'm sure we could find something to fit you in your father's home. You used to wear oversized sweaters, if I recall correctly?** "

That's what makes Asriel finally look up at Wing, then at Mount Ebott as well. "Do you think we have enough time?"

Wing nods. " **I am certain. The night is still young. We can explain it to your parents in the morning when they ask. And... there is something I need your help with as well.** "

"What is it?"

" **I'll tell you when you're feeling more comfortable.** " Wing gets to his feet and does an 'after you' gesture. " **Shall we?** "

Asriel looks up at the mountain again and, after a moment's hesitation, gets to his feet. "Okay."

Wing starts leading the way.

They walk in silence for a while and pass by the campsite along the way. Asriel finds himself still toying with the leaves on his arms, but he tries to stop and focus on something else instead. He turns his attention to everything around him instead, to the bed of pine needles on the ground his toes are sinking into, the rustle of the trees themselves all around, the smell of snow and wood and some kind of night flower in the breeze. Glancing behind him just yields more forest, he can't see the cliff they were at anymore. Probably for the best.

They reach the narrow path leading up to the mountain, and Asriel looks up at the stars again, smiling down at him, shimmering as if through a mist.

"Hey, Wing?"

" **Yes?** "

"Do you think I'm going to grow up?"

" **I cannot say with certainty. You and me, we're both unique in our own separate ways, Asriel. There is nothing I can accurately predict about our future.** "

"Oh."

They walk on. The pines start thinning around them as the ground becomes choked with stones and boulders the higher they climb. Without the trees to shield them, the wind seems stronger, making Asriel's leaves flutter in a very uncomfortable way. He hugs himself because of that rather than the temperature.

"What about my parents? Are they going to start aging again?"

" **I hope so. That was one of the reasons why I chose to use their dust. Theoretically, any monster would've sufficed, but I thought the proximity of their essence to yours, and the possibility of recreating the link between you three, were more than enough to justify telling them a little bit about the plan.** "

They walk on. They're past the last few pines and are climbing above the treetops now, looking out over the forest. The distant lights of the human city, now dimmer and less numerous, catch Asriel's attention again, and even though he looks elsewhere, he can't help the fear and worry from resurfacing.

"What's going to happen with the humans?"

" **I don't know.** "

"Aren't you scared?"

" **Not particularly.** "

Asriel hugs himself tighter and glances at the lights again. "Everyone seems so calm about it..."

" **We're just enjoying our freedom while we can. There is trouble brewing in the horizon, no doubt about it, and we will all have to deal with it when it comes, but for now, we are in the calm before the storm, as it were.** "

They walk on. The dark mouth of the tunnel looms ahead. Wing lifts a hand and summons a crimson fireball over it; Asriel can see the light shining through the hole in his palm as they delve into the darkness. He looks down at himself, at his leaf-covered chest, touching the spot over where his heart should be were he still a monster made of flesh and bones.

"I... I'm just... _feeling_ so many things. I haven't felt anything in so long, i-it's... it's hard to deal with it."

" **That's perfectly reasonable. Just remember you can always ask for help from those who care about you.** "

They reach the throne room. Asriel has to cover his nose so he won't smell the golden flowers. He never wants to see the things ever again. They just make him painfully aware of the petals still around most of his neck, crawling up the back of his skull and ending on his forehead.

"Does... does that include you?" he says once they're past the cloud of smell.

" **...only if you want it to,** " Wing responds after a pause. " **I'll understand if you blame me for your current state. I myself do. But I am open to anything you need help with, if you want to share it with me.** "

...

"Okay."

They go past the elevator, and into the underground passage that leads to Asgore's home. _Asriel's_ former home. But even before they reach the stairs he can already feel the smell of golden flowers ahead, and this time he just stops dead and covers his muzzle.

Wing walks a few paces ahead before he notices, but once he does, a look of realization dawns on him. " **Ah. Golden flowers?** "

Asriel just nods.

" **Wait here.** " The fireball in his hands expands to a whole wall of flames that he holds ahead of him as he walks. He climbs up the steps and out of sight, but Asriel can hear the sizzle of the fire burning something, and he sees the lights come on ahead and flow down to him. After a while, he returns and stops at the foot of the stairs. " **Come. I can't get all of the smell out, but this should help.** "

Asriel moves forward again, and when he goes past Wing and starts going up, the flower smell lessens and quickly becomes buried in the stench of burning. The flowerpot behind the stairs holds nothing but cinders, as does every other one they come across on the way to Asriel's old room. Wing has turned on the lights across the whole place.

In his old bedroom, Asriel has to stop at the door. The presents are still there. "Frisk didn't touch them..." he muses aloud, stepping over to the closest one. He doesn't dare touch the knife inside, but with the other, he reaches in and pulls out the heart-shaped pendant, watching it hang and sway in his hold, catching the light at the edges.

He puts it back and closes the box.

In the dresser, his clothes are the same as ever, though they're all folded neatly. There aren't any all crumpled and messy like he used to do sometimes. He digs through them, until he finds the biggest sweater and pants he used to own; purple and azure plus dark blue for the legs. He never wore these much back in the day, but it'll probably be the only one that fits him now.

Wing stops him on the way out. " **Take your time, and if I'm not here when you're done, just wait somewhere in the house. I need to go get something, I won't be long.** "

"Oh. Um, okay?"

Wing leaves, and after a moment, Asriel heads to the bathroom with the bundled clothes in his arms. Monsters don't need toilets, but the ones with flesh, and especially fur like his family, still need to clean up and things like that, so there's a bathtub with a shower head over it in the back of the room and a sink with space for putting stuff next to it and little doors and drawers underneath.

Asriel leaves his clothes next to the sink, then turns to the mirror above it, but before he can even start doing anything, his own face makes him pause. He leans in close.

His eyes are... they're not _black_ , exactly, more like a really, _really_ dark green, he can see it when he tilts his head and the light catches his eyes at just the right angle. And the pupils are thin like a cat's, and colored a much lighter shade, the same one of his leaves. His horns are a woody brown at the base and fade to green on the mostly blunt ends. The inside of his mouth is all green too, with the tongue a bit darker than the rest, and ending on a point for some reason? And his teeth, aside from the pair of flexible 'fangs' melded to his lips, have the same yellow as the petals on his neck.

It looks really weird.

He shakes his head and pushes past it. Asriel starts plucking out what he didn't get to on the cliff outside. One by one, the petals fall away, piling in and around the sink and on the floor around his feet. The leaves follow shortly after, starting at the 'collar' and going down, first his arms, then chest, then his waist and hips and legs, all the way down to his ankles. In the end, he can look down at himself again and, if it weren't for the end of his new tail, see just white. The skin is like bark and now pockmarked by the spots where the leaves were growing from, but it's better than before. He can actually run his hands all down his limbs and feel his _skin_ instead of all those stupid leaves.

When he steps under the shower, it feels different too, but not in a bad way this time. The spots where the leaves were sting at first, but the heat of the water soothes that quickly. Drinking the water feels surprisingly nice too, way more filling than liquid has any right to be. Does he actually work like a plant now? Does he only need water and sunlight to live? He'll have to figure that out soon. Good thing everyone isn't trapped underground anymore too, if that's the case. Heh, he might just have to ask Mom and Dad to move to the beach! That'd be fun. He's heard about beaches, they sound really nice to live in.

While Asriel lets the hot water cascade over him, he grabs his tail again. He never had a tail before, but the thing isn't really bothering him too much? He mostly doesn't like the green at the end of it, but it doesn't really do anything. It doesn't seem to move on its own or anything like that. He'll keep an eye on it for now and, if it starts sprouting leaves, he'll think about it again.

He steps out of the shower and only then realizes he didn't bring a towel, but... apparently water doesn't stick to his bark-skin? Only the leaf spots are wet. Huh. That's not so bad. The smaller towel next to the sink is enough to take care of those without completely soaking it.

Oh man, what if the leaves grow back? He really hopes they don't. Having to pluck all that every month or whatever would be so annoying.

Asriel yanks his new, proper clothes on, and they actually fit pretty well! A bit short on the legs, but nothing too bad. There's no hole for his tail, though, and he doesn't want to leave it tucked down a pant leg and end up sitting on it or something, so he wraps it around his waist under the band of the sweatpants instead to keep it out of the way. He'll figure out something better some other time.

For now, he just kicks most of the leaves under the sink and looks at himself in the mirror again. His face still looks weird, and the lack of fur is really strange, but he's feeling a lot more like himself again. And he _does_ like the horns. He used to wonder when he'd start growing horns like his Dad's when he was little. Oh, what if they end up as some sort of branch-looking antlers?! That'd be kinda cool.

The discarded leaves and petals he'll just... ask Wing to burn when the skeleton gets back, yeah. That's good enough. He doesn't really want to think about them too much.

With all said and done, Asriel steps back out of the bathroom only to find Frisk waiting for him! "Oh! Hi Frisk! I thought you were sleeping? Did we wake you?"

The human says sort of, they weren't really asleep. They got up to look for him and saw him going up the mountain, so they got Sans to give them a shortcut up to it. They got here while he was in the shower. Is he okay?

Asriel looks down at the blue and purple hiding the leaf marks. "Yeah. I wasn't feeling so good, but... I'm better now." He looks down the hall, first at the doors leading to both his own room and his parents', then to the entry hall and the dining table visible beyond it. "Are you going to stay? Wing said he needed my help with something, he should be back soon. Maybe you can help too?"

Frisk says yes. They think they know what it is, they'll help.

Together, they head into the living/dining room and climb into Toriel's big, cushy armchair. It's wide enough they can sit side by side comfortably. Asriel looks around again, at the flowerpot holding the charred remains of its occupants, at the empty fireplace, the unused books.

"It's kind of creepy here like this, isn't it? Just us, with everything quiet."

Frisk says sort of, yeah. But at least he's not alone anymore, right?

"Heh, I guess so," Asriel replies, watching his hand rub over the blue-and-purple stripes on his arm. "It's just... it still feels wrong."

He's going to be fine, the human says. They're sure of it.

Asriel just smiles and lets them hug him again, returning the gesture gladly. With an added layer of clothing between them he feels their heat less, but it's still there, warm and comforting. It kind of grounds him, in a way. Reassures him he still has something to look forward to, that this new form shouldn't get in the way. _Won't_ get in the way. He won't let it.

Not even a minute is spent in the embrace when they hear the front door quietly creak open and they pull apart. Wing steps into view again, carrying something under his arm. " **Hello again, Asriel. And Frisk. I'm glad to see you here, actually, you can help us.** "

"Hey, Wing. What is that?"

" **Something we need to talk about.** "

The skeleton sets it down on the dinner table and it... looks sort of like a metal ribcage? Or the space inside one anyway, with little clamps where the ribs should be and a circle of glass at the top. It's attached to a battery, too. Wing pulls out one of the chairs to sit down, one hand on the whatever-it-is. Frisk looks worried all of a sudden and look away.

" **This is what's left of Chara's soul.** "

Wing tips the thing forward so Asriel can look through the glass. It's hard to see, but there's a ball of black floating inside the curved metal, the same black as Wing's clothes.

" **After you two fused, Chara attempted a Reset while you were dying, but they failed. They became stuck in the Void, just like I eventually did. Human souls are far more resilient than those of monsters, but the Void is merciless. Their soul began to deteriorate. To be perfectly honest, I don't think calling it a 'soul' is even accurate anymore. This is little more than Void matter and Determination, much like my own, but I cannot say how much of the Chara you knew is left here. This creature seems to hold nothing but malice. Over the course of Frisk's own Resets, they fed their own essence into Frisk's, and eventually took over completely. We had to separate them in order to make this peaceful resolution possible again. But Chara is still here, and we cannot hold them in a soul pod forever.** "

Wing rests his hands in his lap, one curled inside the other. " **You knew them best, Asriel. We've agreed that you above anyone else should have a say in what happens to them now.** "


	7. On the Surface

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, I had some trouble with this chapter, s'why it's coming out so late after the last like, what? Three came out all in a row? But it's here now.
> 
> Please note the change in character tags.

The machine is complete.

Where before Alphys and Sans' work had been hampered by the need to keep it secret from Flowey, now the Royal Scientist and her predecessor had their progress frequently diverted by the dealings with the humans. Sans had decided to excuse himself from the matter of Chara. Wing and Alphys were left to work on their own to come up with a solution.

Asriel's decision, after a lot of thinking and with some input from Frisk, had been that they needed to know exactly how much of Chara was left. That was what had consumed the lives of the two scientist for the past... how long had it been now? A few months, but no more than half a year, since the Barrier's destruction. Wing still had some trouble keeping track of time after spending so much of it in the Void. Relatively speaking, anyway. Such silly concepts like time and space don't really exist there.

Human-monster relations are tense, but peaceful so far, mostly thanks to Frisk's presence in their midst. The construction of a small village of some sort at the foot of the mountain has begun, though no monsters have moved out under the sky yet. For now, only Asgore, Toriel and Undyne were allowed some measure of freedom, and the work on Surface Capital (the king's ability to name things hasn't improved) is supervised by the human authorities always.

The worst of it, however, has to be the issue regarding Frisk's original family. Apparently the human had run away more than two years ago, before falling into the Underground, and now with their face showing up all over the news... well, it was a matter of time, really. Their family had come, with pictures and documents to prove Frisk was theirs, and demanded to take them back.

The meeting wasn't pretty. There was a lot of shouting. Frisk's family was... less than kind, to put it gently. Wing saw the argument, it was the worst. He knows the human authorities are looking into the whole issue now to try and decide what's going to happen. Wing also knows that the only thing the kid wants is to make the name they've adopted for themself official.

Frisk Dreemurr.

But that's neither here nor there. Wing and Alphys have been working on the issue of Chara, and how to find out exactly what was in that glob of tar Chara's soul had become. The end result was an entirely new machine: the Deep Soul Analyzer, a contraption adapted from one of the functions of the Extractor, but with a more refined build. The device could scan the soul of a living monster or human, with no need to tear it out of their body, and give a detailed description of it in a few minutes.

The Analyzer's result was...

...troubling.

Four 'Unable To Identify' results, two of which were in probably the most important parts, the type and the stability. Chara's soul was so deteriorated the Analyzer couldn't even identify it as having once belonged to a human. As for the stability, Wing suspected all the Determination was throwing off the sensors. Chara's soul was likely _extremely_ unstable because of all the Void stuff in it, but Determination held it together despite that.

But they had proof now. There _was_ indeed some remnant of Chara in that shapeless chunk of black, however small and frail, which meant that, despite everything, there was still a glimmer of hope that they might be saved.

Asriel clung to that hope like a lifeline. He said they had to try to help them, somehow! Frisk was more hesitant, having had to deal with Chara's influence in the flesh in the most literal way possible. The two almost argued over it, but in the end, the consensus was that the next step would be to try to talk to Chara, to see if they were even willing to receive help in the first place. Asriel himself had taken some measure of persuasion, after all.

The problem then became how to communicate with the broken soul that had no physical form to command. But a solution for this was found relatively fast, mostly thanks to one of Alphys' major projects from before. Mettaton was a monster soul controlling a mechanical body. They should be able to make Chara's soul interface with a machine that would pose no threat, but allow them to communicate with the living.

Even if the concept was easy to get to, the actual construction of the new machine took longer than the Analyzer.

More time passed, a few more months. Surface Capital was completed, and some residents of the old Capital moved out into the sunlight. A second settlement was built, this one high on the ever-snowy slopes of Mount Ebott, called Peak Town that received every single resident from both Snowdin Town and Ice Village. A large body of water, fed by a staircase of little babbling waterfalls and not far from the Surface Capital, became Lake Village and a new home for many former Waterfall residents. And in a particularly dense patch of forest, Spider Cove was formed almost overnight by Muffet's brethren and the pastry maker herself, along with some other arthropod-like monsters.

The one thing that seemed to be getting worse was the situation with Frisk's blood relatives. The human authorities were, if nothing else, only digging up more unpleasant things for the media to run rampant with, and the debate was enough to make the kid dread every time they had to say something publicly. Frisk was older than when they'd ran away, by 3 whole years now, but they still weren't an adult, and as far as the human legal system was concerned, Toriel and Asgore weren't valid parents. The only good thing about the whole mess was that it was, at the very least, making the discussion be mostly about parenting skills instead of whether or not monsterkind deserved a place on the surface.

But overall, things were looking up. It'd take a long time for them to be on equal ground as the humans, but progress always takes time. Wing was still keeping himself out of the public eye, though. He didn't want the attention, and he didn't mind waiting until things were less tense.

Eventually, the machine to house Chara's soul was finished, over half a year since the Barrier was destroyed.

The time has come to speak to Chara.

This machine doesn't have a name. It's just a tool. A means of communication. Inside it is Chara, held safely within a soul pod. On the front is where the actual communication will take place, with a screen for them to use, plus two cameras above, two microphones on either side, and a speaker below. The side of the machine has a glass viewport to observe the soul directly, and a control terminal with a screen and keyboard of its own to keep track of power levels and the state of the soul. The machine has an independent power source and is completely disconnected from the main power grid of the Core. It has no moving parts, and is firmly bolted to the floor and wall. The control terminal has a failsafe to shut everything down in a second should things start going wrong.

All possible precautions have been taken. Chara will be powerless.

They are ready.

Alphys, Wing, Asriel and Frisk are gathered around the machine. They invited Sans as well, but the skeleton excused himself, saying he'd 'had enough of red eyes to last a lifetime'.

The lizard is at the control terminal. With the press of a button, the machine begins to activate. Chara's screen flickers to life. The cameras buzz quietly as they automatically adjust to the light and size of the room. A brief crackle of static bursts from the speaker, but the microphones pick it up and start bouncing it back and forth, higher and higher, until Alphys tweaks their sensitivity and the high-pitched whine dies down.

"S-sorry, everyone."

She takes a deep breath.

"Okay. H-here we go."

One final key press, and Chara's will filters through the circuits like blood through parched veins.

The screen at the front begins to flicker madly in a dizzying mess of colors impossible to look at. The speaker releases a storm of noise that gets picked up by the mics and multiplied exponentially, until they're all cringing and covering their ears. But thankfully, it doesn't last long. A few seconds, maybe, before the ear-splitting wail begins to die down, and the maelstrom of colors slows and dulls, until everything stops. The screen fades back down to nothing and the speaker goes silent.

Then, three red lines cut through the black, two straight, one curved, forming a simple smiling face.

~~*Greetings.~~

The voice is warped. Otherwordly. Echoed over itself, like they're hearing it come from the other end of a vast hollow, a space with walls and ceiling but too big to be called a room. And yet, despite the distortion, it's still clearly identifiable as the voice of a child, a voice meant to embody innocence, but that all four of them know is as far from it as possible.

Alphys doesn't dare come into view of the machine's cameras. She stays to the side of it, at the control terminal. Wing has his hands clasped behind him and seems, so far, impassive, standing at the back of the group, towering over everyone by his sheer presence alone. Frisk hugs themself and looks down, but then force their eyes back up to the screen with the smiling face.

It's Asriel who breaks the silence. He's the one who steps closer, who clutches at his chest, both uncertain and yet yearning for the soul behind the screen. He's stopped wearing stripes, so his sweater today is bright orange with red bands around the neck and wrists and waist and a yellow sun with black shades on the front, and his pants are an earthy brown. The leaves and petals never grew back after he plucked them all out, and the marks left on his bark-like skin have faded almost to the point of being invisible, but his tail gained a tuft of greenery at the end that he hasn't messed with. His horns are bigger, a bit longer and more angular.

"Chara?" Asriel calls. His own voice is shaky and unsure. "Are you there?"

~~*Yes.~~

A wavering breath leaves him. The corners of his open mouth tug into a smile. He steps closer still, and puts a hand on the screen. His brain registers the lack of that familiar staticky feeling, that little crackling noise, the absence of that faint tug on fur he no longer has, but he brushes the thoughts aside. That doesn't matter now. He feels moisture gather in his eyes, but he wipes it away before it can fall.

"Chara... It's me, Asriel. We've been so worried about you."

~~*No, you have not.~~

"W-what? Chara, no, of course I have! I've missed you so much! I-"

~~* They  have not. ~~

Asriel goes silent. Then he turns back to the other two. Wing is looking down, and Frisk's gaze is apologetic, but before they've even gathered enough breath to speak, Chara interjects again.

 ~~~~*They would have destroyed me had you not requested their help, Asriel.  
*Frisk was willing to sacrifice me to ensure the safety of others.  
*You, Asriel, have replaced me with my own killer.

"No! No, I haven't! Chara, I'd n-never replace you, I sw-"

~~*You referred to them by my name.  
*I know you did. ~~

"I... I-I... AH!"

Asriel jumps when a hand grabs his shoulder, but it's just Wing. " **That's enough,** " the skeleton says firmly. " **Alphys, cut the feed.** "

After a moment, the screen flickers and dies.

Wing steers him back to Frisk's side. He's a mess, trying and failing miserably to stem the flow of sweet-smelling drops, sobbing into his hands, his sleeves, and when Frisk wraps their arms around him he just breaks down completely, clinging to them like a lifesaver, soaking nectared tears into their shirt while they whisper soothing words into his ear.

Frisk tells him it's okay, he shouldn't listen to Chara, and of _course_ they care about them. They want to help them, of course they do, and yes, they did discuss the possibility of just destroying Chara's soul with Wing and Sans before, months and months ago before the former doctor was even rescued, but they rejected it almost immediately. It's okay, he can cry all he wants, it's okay. He shouldn't listen to Chara. He told them about how Chara wasn't the greatest person. They hated humanity, didn't they? And how many times did they make him cry, and then called him out for it?

Wing interjects after a moment. He's been standing off to the side, just listening and waiting. " **In my time as Royal Scientist I never spent as much time as I could have with both of the king's children together, but what little I saw never struck me as particularly healthy. I kept my thoughts to myself at the time, however. I was a good friend of Asgore and Toriel, but I told myself it wasn't my place to interfere with how he raised his own offspring.** " He pauses while Asriel pulls back from Frisk, still wiping at a few insistent tear tracks. " **Even on the few interactions I had alone with Chara, it was hard to see there was something more to them. They hid it very well. I only realized how talented they were at manipulation much, much later, after we had spent time together in the Void and they had left to take over Frisk's body by force.** "

Wing sighs, but doesn't look back down at them, gaze fixated on the blank screen ahead.

Both Asriel and Frisk are sitting on the floor now. He quite literally collapsed against them, and he's too big for them to support his weight, so they sunk to the floor without him even realizing it. Asriel sniffles and wipes at his nose with his sleeve a few more times until he's calmed down. Mostly.

Frisk asks if he's okay.

"Y-yeah, I think so. I'll be okay." He sees the wet patch on Frisk's shirt, a blue one that also has a sun but with two clouds, and theirs just has a happy smile instead of shades. "Sorry about that."

They say it's fine. They can just go swimming at Lake Village later to wash it off.

"H-heh, yeah," Asriel chuckles, but his shaky smile fades quickly. "You're right, Frisk. Chara wasn't good for me. You showed me that. But..." He tugs on his sleeve. "They're right too, aren't they? I did replace them. You look so much like them, sometimes it's hard for me to remember that you're not Chara."

Frisk holds him by the shoulders and tells him firmly that no, Chara isn't right. That's perfectly normal. They look alike, it's _expected_ , even. But do they act the same? Do they treat him the same way?

"No..."

 _Exactly_ , Frisk says. And how much time did he spend as Flowey, unable to properly mourn for losing Chara, unable to do anything but fester in their toxic words and their blame without his soul? He's still recovering from it. Frisk knows how hard it is to get past something like that, and they know he's still relearning how to deal with his own emotions. They know he has nightmares, Frisk does too, but they always help each other through them, don't they? How many times has Toriel woken them in the morning, only to find them sleeping in a single bed, chasing the other's nightmares away with their presence?

Frisk takes his hands in theirs, and tells him they're here for him. And they're here to help Chara, not be manipulated by them again. So don't let them do it, okay? Just take control of the conversation, and ask them what he has to ask, they say. Frisk knows he can do it.

"H-heh... okay. I'll try."

Both of them get up, but Asriel keeps one of Frisk's hand held tight even as they turn to the machine again. "Don't let go, okay?"

Frisk reassures him that they won't.

Asriel wipes at his face one last time, just to make sure there aren't any traces of tears left around his eyes, then looks over at Alphys, who's looking supremely awkward and still standing in the same spot next to the control terminal.

"Bring them back."

The lizard simply nods and taps one of the keys.

After a moment, the screen flickers with red and the three lines come back.

Asriel feels a reassuring squeeze around his fingers as he gathers his breath.

"Chara. We want to help you. All of us. You know Wing even better than me and Frisk do, he was your friend! He can help fix your soul! He even made a new one for me! We just need you to accept our help."

Silence.

Then...

~~*So you're letting yourself be led by someone other than me now, Asriel?~~

"Wha... No! I'm serious, Chara, we all want to help you! We want you to get b-!"

~~*You may age as much as you like, but you'll always be a crybaby, won't you?~~

"No! I-I mean... b-being a crybaby isn't a bad th-!"

~~*Do you even deserve a new soul, Asriel, after everything you did?~~

"I...!" His eyes are brimming with tears yet again. "P-people can change! You can change! Chara, pl-!"

~~*Do you think you are above consequence?~~

"No, I don't! I have n-nightmares! I feel awful about it! B-!"

~~*You are pathetic, Asriel.  
*And now, you side with those who would plot my demise. ~~

Before he can answer, Wing's hand closes over his shoulder again as the skeleton steps forward.

" **Yes, Chara. You're right. We did discuss the possibility of destroying your soul. But have you stopped to consider why?** "

No response.

" **We were afraid of you, Chara. We were afraid of what you might do to others if you were allowed to continue existing, even as a soul with no body. You're not above consequence either. I know what you're going to say. You'll claim it wasn't you who started to kill, and I agree. Frisk doesn't deny it either.** "

Wing turns back to the other two. Asriel wraps his arms around the human, still trying to stem the renewed flow of tears. Frisk looks away with the question, but shake their head slowly. The skeleton faces the screen again.

" **But this isn't about past misdeeds. Everyone in this room has a blemish in their past. The size doesn't matter. What matters is the will to change. Yes, we've all done bad things and, in some cases, hurt the people we love most, but we've also moved on from that. We're working to get better every day, and we want to give you the chance to do the same. I can't say if it's even possible to fix the damage to your soul at this point, but I'm going to try anyway. The only thing we ask, if we're successful, is for you to at least try to change like we did.** "

More silence from the machine with the soul.

Asriel has calmed down again. He steps around Wing and stops at his side, once again towing Frisk along by the hand.

"I realize now you weren't the best influence on me, Chara. I never should've agreed to that plan with the buttercups. But you were still my best friend back then, and I want to help you get better the same way I did. Frisk too."

The human takes a step forward so they're more within view of the cameras that are Chara's current eyes. They give a little nod and wave.

"I don't know why you hated humanity. Frisk told me they could never get an explanation from you either. But the humans aren't bad! We're on the surface now, and... well, they're still kinda wary of us, but they're being really nice! You've got nothing to worry about! Things are a lot better now than when you f-"

~~*SHUT UP!!!~~

All three of them jump.

 ~~~~~~*Humans will always be worthless, selfish creatures.~~  
 ~~*And monsterkind is made up of nothing but pathetic whelps like you.~~  
 ~~*I don't want your help.~~  
 ~~*I want your complete and utter annihilation.~~  
 ~~*I want the erasure of this flawed reality.~~  
 ~~*If you cannot give me that, we have nothing to discuss.~~

The screen goes out.

Alphys suddenly flinches back with a yelp as a shower of sparks flies from the keyboard. When she tries using it again, there's no response. "I th-think Chara made it short-circuit."

Asriel hears Wing sigh in resignation. " **I feared this might happen.** " The skeleton looks down at the king's son. " **They may be too far gone, Asriel.** "

Asriel looks back at the now inert machine, then at Frisk. The human just gives him a sad look. They're still clinging to each other for comfort.

"What do we do now?"

He expects Wing to answer, but the skeleton is watching Alphys climb on top of the machine and start to pull it apart. It's only after she's unscrewed the metal panes and set them aside, then reached in and lifted the soul pod with that black glob of tar out of the circuitry within, that Wing finally answers.

" **I don't know.** "

His warped voice is full of sorrow.


	8. Goodbye

Wing needs no food or sleep. He spends his nights just... passing time, mostly. Stargazing. Reading. Things like that. While he was working with Alphys he didn't like doing things when she wasn't there either. But lately, the quiet hours under the stars have been disrupted by a nagging thought.

Chara.

For so long, or as much as one can apply time-related words to a place outside of time, the child was Wing's friend in the Void. His single solitary source of actual, real interaction, when he wasn't watching his own timeline or those of other universes, variations made from the same pieces but with everything shuffled around. But if he'd being honest with himself, he thought of them as a friend but... were they? Chara certainly acted like it, but whenever he asked them about themself they'd change the subject, or draw his attention elsewhere, or just give a vague answer that really didn't answer anything.

As much as they only had each other back then, Wing never _really_ got to know them, did he?

He's lying on his back, just beyond the view of Peak Town, behind a little mound of snow and with his hands behind his head. His eyes are on the stars above, but his mind isn't.

Wing sits up and rubs snow-covered hands over his face. He feels some of it seep into his dead eye socket, but he just pulls it down to his mouth with the sludge inside his skull and spits it out. He looks at his hands, at the holes through the palms, the lack of wrists between them and the fused ends of his forearm bones. He makes his sleeves extend up, passing a single thick tendril through each of his hand holes. The black material is truly black, the same all-absorbing black as the Void.

After a while, the skeleton sighs and lets his sleeves reform. Without even standing up he phases into the Void, then scrolls his view of reality to an all-too-familiar home. Not his own. Not the one's he's sharing with his estranged grandsons, but the one that belongs to the Royal Family.

Wing pops back into existence just outside the room of the two siblings, but just as he's about to knock he hears something beyond the door. Voices. But he's not surprised. Both Asriel and Frisk have frequent nightmares. He just knocks and waits.

It's Asriel who comes to the door, but Wing can see Frisk sitting up in their bed. Their cheeks are still shiny with tear tracks that they hastily wipe away.

" **I need to talk to you both.** "

Asriel glances back at Frisk. "Right now?"

" **Yes.** "

The two look at each other again before the king's son goes back to Frisk's side. Wing follows him. The two sit together atop the human's bed, while the skeleton settles on the floor in front of them.

" **Is everything alright?** " he asks, mostly to Frisk. They just nod.

"What is it?"

Wing looks at his hands again, and takes a deep breath.

" **Chara isn't worth the trouble it'd take to revive them.** "

He's prepared for a shout, for Toriel to come running to see what's going on, but instead...

Silence.

Wing looks up to find both Frisk and Asriel too stunned to speak, but their faces say everything. Asriel is hurt, clutching his chest as though Wing just stabbed him, disbelief and pain clear across his features. Frisk is harder to read. They're not happy about it either, but their look feels more like... grim understanding than anything else. This might not be as bad as he'd expected.

Asriel opens his mouth to speak, but Wing raises a hand to stop him. " **Please. Allow me to explain myself. Then you can counter my arguments.** "

The king's son suddenly looks defiant. It's Frisk's hand on his arm that makes him relent and nod, but that glare of animosity is still there in his eyes.

" **Asriel,** " Wing starts. " **Your very existence is a miracle. The set of injections I came up with to regenerate your soul were a shot in the dark. An educated guess. I had no idea if it'd work. There was an equal chance you'd die for good, or become some unthinkable monstrosity that we'd have to eliminate. You were very brave to accept my offer despite knowing all that, and I'm proud.** "

Asriel doesn't meet his eye. Wing doesn't expect him to.

" **You had no soul, Asriel, but you had your essence. An essence can exist without a soul to give it thought and will. Us monsters carry the essence of our deceased in items that were precious to those who passed away. The essence is the most primal, most basic component of any living thing. Everything alive has an essence, even when it does not have a soul or will. But for monsters, things work differently. Our bodies are manifested directly from our essence. We are, in a sense, mere projections of this most basal form. We are closely tied to our magic because we are little more than ethereal holograms.** "

Asriel is starting to look impatient, but he stays quiet.

The skeleton looks down at himself, putting a hand to his chest and bringing out his soul, red cracks on black and a powerful crimson glow that fills the darkened room. " **My essence is safe within this soul-like vessel, so even though I'm not alive, I'm not dead either. I simply exist.** " The soul dissolves and flows back into Wing's chest.

" **Chara is in a similar state, I believe. They are dead, but their Determination keeps them tethered to reality, and it kept them whole when they first arrived in the Void by mistake, after attempting to Reset when they were dying in the same body as you. But their Determination could not keep them safe from the Void's all-consuming nature forever. Doubts and resentment allowed it to contaminate their soul and spread, eating away the culmination of their being, replacing every single Trait with itself. And their Determination, in turn, only grew to keep them alive, leaving little room for their essence as the Void continued to consume it down to almost nothing.** "

Wing sighs. He's not looking at the two children on the bed anymore.

" **I don't know what we could possibly do to repair their soul. The only thing I can think of is to provide the raw Traits they are while extracting the Void matter at the same time. That could, in theory, heal their soul, though what would happen to their essence is impossible to know. But...** "

The skeleton looks up. Both pairs of eyes are on him.

" **The six human souls are gone. We have no way of obtaining the extracts other than from Frisk's own soul, and extracting a non-dominant Trait from a human soul can be extremely harmful. We would need all six of them, likely in a considerably quantity. It's too risky. And even if we could somehow acquire all six extracts and adapt the Extractor to also inject things into the space where the soul is held, and assuming the procedure is successful and, in a best case scenario, Chara's soul is returned to how it was before you absorbed it, Asriel, what then?** "

The king's son averts his eyes.

" **They are** **_dead_ ** **. They have no physical form to command, and we have to way of recreating their original body. We could take another page out of Alphys' book and build a robotic form for them, perhaps, but what if the procedure doesn't work? What if they're still nothing more than an entity full of hatred for reality itself? We would be giving them the means to wreak havoc on the world, when the future of monsterkind as a whole has never been brighter. Would we even be able to kill them if they are already dead? Could they be stopped? I don't know.** "

Wing folds his hands together. He's not pleading with the king's son, but his hands still make a fitting gesture. " **I'm not saying they don't** **_deserve_ ** **to live again, Asriel. It's never too late to change for the better. You and I, and even Frisk and Sans and Asgore and Grillby, we are all living proof of that. But Chara has spent far too long in the Void, slowly losing themself, losing their very** **_essence_ ** **, the thing that makes them who they are, and when taking everything into account the risks of bringing them back outweigh the potential benefits.** "

The skeleton actually shuffles closer and puts a hand on Asriel's knee. " **I know you two were close. It pains me to say this too, Asriel. They helped me stay sane in the Void. But I saw with my own eyes what they forced Frisk to do, and what they forced you to do when you stole them away and absorbed them again in that timeline. They abused your power, your body, and obliterated the entire Underground, and had Sans not absorbed Frisk's soul and taken the others outside of the Barrier, I have no doubt Chara would have made themself a god and destroyed reality itself.** "

Wing's grip tightens, almost begging Asriel to understand. " **I want to help them, rescue them the same way** **_I_ ** **was, but I'm afraid it's just not worth the attempt. And you know they were never really your friend, don't you, Asriel? They manipulated not only you, but your parents as well. We will never understand their motives, but whatever they were, it doesn't excuse their actions. I wish, from the bottom of my soul, that we could give them a new life, another chance to have a family, but Chara are simply too far gone, and the resources they'd require are beyond our reach.** "

The former doctor's hand loosens and pulls away.

" **All we can do is let them go.** "

Wing goes silent. He has nothing else to say.

He just waits, and watches.

Asriel still isn't looking at him, but he seems more sorrowful than antagonistic now. He turns to Frisk instead. The human says nothing either. Their discomfort is clear in their face, in the way they're sort of half-hugging themself with one arm. But they don't disagree with Wing. They don't like it. But they don't think he's wrong either. The meaning comes less from the nigh-unintelligible mumbles that they give and more from their body language.

Asriel starts to look uncomfortable as well. He takes one of Frisk's hands like he always does when he needs reassurance, and finally meets Wing's one-eyed gaze. "What are you going to do to them if I..." He lets the sentence hang.

Wing raises a hand and summons a crimson fireball over the hole in his palm, bright red flames with a dark, shifting core. " **Their soul is little more than Void matter and Determination. So am I.** "

Asriel seems to cringe away from the fire almost by reflex. "You're going to kill them?"

The skeleton's brow creases ever-so-slightly.

" **One cannot kill something that is already dead.** "

The fire goes out.

" **But... for all intents and purposes, yes. I'm going to kill what is left of Chara. I suspect I may be the only one capable of doing so at this point.** "

A few seconds of deafening silence go by.

"What if... what if you're wrong, and Chara can be saved?" Asriel asks.

" **Then you can feel free to loathe my existence for the rest of your days. I will live with the consequences of my actions.** "

Wing is looking down. He stays silent. He can hear the quiet whisper of fabric scraping against itself while Asriel, or perhaps Frisk, moves, but he doesn't look to see what's happening. He just waits, head bowed.

After a while, the king's son speaks up again. "I..." he starts, then stops, then starts again. "Okay, I... believe you. I think. Just... leave and go do it."

Wing looks up, but Asriel doesn't meet his eye, so he just gets to his feet. " **Would either of you like to be present for it?** "

"No," Asriel says almost before he's done asking.

The skeleton just nods and leaves. He shuts the door behind him silently before phasing into the Void. He scrolls his view  across the Surface Capital, past Spider Cove, up the side of Mount Ebott and then into the tunnel to the throne room, through the gray halls of the castle and down a hidden elevator shaft to one room in particular: his and Sans' old shared office.

He pops back into the timeline there, where a soul pod with a built-in power source holds Chara, standing by itself on the empty desk.

Wing picks it up, then sits on the floor with his back to the wood. He grabs the pod on either end and twists one side. A hiss of pressurized air rings out as the lids pops free, and he sets both it and the pod itself aside, leaving only Chara's soul in front of him, hovering weightless, an orb of black that suddenly seems so very small and fragile. He cradles it between his hands without touching it.

" **Chara. I...** "

He can't think of anything to say. Or rather, he can think of a million things, but Wing can't translate them into words. Instead he just sits there, holding Chara in his hands, and the memories begin to flow almost on their own, with little resistance from Wing.

He remembers the talks he had with Chara, long ago when they were still alive. He remembers them asking him about death, and souls, and Determination. He remembers the drawing they gave him of a Save Point, the drawing that would eventually kickstart his research into them and would ultimately lead to his Fall. And then, once he'd already been in the Void for however long it was, he ran into them again, and they talked and watched their original timeline together, until he came to view them as a close friend.

Wing sighs.

" **I'm sorry,** " he says finally.

He stares at the soul a little while longer, as though he's waiting for a reply while the little orb of tar flows within itself  without ever dripping or losing mass.

He takes a deep, steadying breath.

" **Goodbye.** "

A new, bigger ball of fire ignites between his hands and engulfs the soul easily.

Slowly, no matter how strong Wing makes the flames, the soul starts to be eaten away, little black wisps coming off the edges. It shrinks in the center of the flames. He wishes he could make it go faster, but it refuses. He just sits there and watches it recede, watches the parts being burned off float away from the soul and vanish in his fire. He can actually feel the soul resisting the damage, it's like he's trying to pull something apart with the glue still holding it together. But Chara is powerless, and their soul continues to slowly, gradually shrink all the way down to a single, tiny point, and then...

Nothing at all.

The fire goes out and his hands drop to his lap.

Without even trying to stand, Wing phases into the silent, empty expanse of the Void. He buries his face in his hands, but there aren't any tears.

He just needs to be alone for a while.

It's over.

There's nothing left to do but move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! I've already got two other fics planned so keep an eye out.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the ride!


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